


Shaw the Ninth

by andthatisterrible



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: F/F, Necromancy, Skeletons, Swordfighting, a large number of other poi characters appear in this, but I didn't tag them all for various reasons, gideon the ninth au, massive spoilers for the book
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:08:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 85,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27299173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andthatisterrible/pseuds/andthatisterrible
Summary: The Emperor has summoned the necromancer heirs of his nine houses and their cavaliers to gather in a ruined palace on a (mostly) abandoned planet to take part in a series of deadly trials and challenges. Those who succeed will win immortality and power beyond their wildest dreams.Shaw is an outcast from her own house, exiled to the gloomy planet of Ninth House for crimes she (mostly) didn't commit. But now the heir to Ninth House, the Reverend Daughter Root has asked Shaw to accompany her to answer the Emperor's challenge. Root may be one of the most powerful necromancers in the galaxy, but every necromancer needs their cavalier, and Root, much to Shaw's dismay, has decided that Shaw is the only person who can fill that role.Skeletons! Necromancy! Creepy gothic castle in space! Sword fights! Memes! Treachery and danger lurk in every corner.This is an AU of the novel 'Gideon the Ninth' by Tamsyn Muir. It's (mostly) the same story as the novel, but with characters from poi instead of the original characters. Contains MASSIVE spoilers for the novel.
Relationships: Root/Sameen Shaw
Comments: 120
Kudos: 184





	1. The Reverend Daughter

**Author's Note:**

> A couple things:
> 
> 1) If you're planning to read the book someday, I'd strongly recommend reading the book before this fic. This fic will spoil the fuck out of it and the book is extremely good. This fic does not have spoilers for the second book in the series, Harrow the Ninth, however, some of the hints from GtN about things that then get revealed in HtN may be a little easier to spot. I have no plans to write an AU for htn after this.
> 
> 2) The M rating is for gore/violence which is about the same level as was in the book. 
> 
> 3) If you have read the book: this is not supposed to be the poi characters filling the roles of the gideon the ninth characters. In other words, Shaw might be the ninth house cavalier, but she's not supposed to be Gideon. In fact, she has a completely different backstory. While the broad strokes and major plot points are the same, don't expect characters to say or do the same things they did in the book simply based on which house they're in. 
> 
> 4) There is only one character from the actual novel in this fic (Teacher). None of the other gtn characters appear. Also, with one or two small exceptions, I didn't take any text directly from the book (there's a few things like prayers and specific necromantic descriptions that couldn't be altered, but we're talking a couple sentences at most).
> 
> 5) I added one more important note in the end notes. I figured I'd put it there since it has a broad vague spoiler for the book. You're free to skip it if you'd rather go in completely blind.
> 
> 6) While I'm definitely not going to say don't put book spoilers in the comments you leave, please don't reply to other people's comments with spoilers.
> 
> 7) I haven't figured out a set schedule to post on, but it should update once a week at the least.
> 
> Sorry for all the notes.

**_ Two is for discipline, heedless of trial;  
Three for the gleam of a jewel or a smile;  
Four for fidelity, facing ahead;  
Five for tradition and debts to the dead;  
Six for the truth over solace in lies;  
Seven for beauty that blossoms and dies;  
Eight for salvation no matter the cost;  
Nine for the Tomb, and for all that was lost. _ **

* * *

In the myriadic year of our Lord--the ten thousandth year of the King Undying, the kindly Prince of Death!--Sameen Shaw boarded a shuttle departing from the barren, rocky hulk of the planet of the Ninth House. It had been three years since she'd arrived there and she'd spent every moment of those years trying to find a way to leave again, but in all the planning and plotting that she'd done since then, she'd never once imagined this scenario.

"You should come look at it, Shaw." The Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House, or Root as she preferred to be called, had her face almost pressed against the window of their shuttle, and while Shaw couldn't see her eyes clearly through the black veil she'd pulled down to shield herself from the unfamiliar bright light of Dominicus, she would have bet someone else's bone knuckles that they were shining with feverish delight. Shaw's own eyes, by comparison, were mid roll, a frequent occurrence around Root.

"It's a planet. I've seen planets before." She stroked a hand over the sheathed rapier that sat across her knees and tried not to think about cracking the Reverend Daughter over the head with the hilt so she could enjoy the rest of their ride in peace.

"Well, I haven't."

That gave Shaw a moment's pause, even if she should have figured it out on her own. Ninth House--the gloomy, decrepit mausoleum lodged in the crust of a gloomy, decrepit planet that Shaw had been obliged to spend three wasted years in--didn't get many visitors and didn't generate many visitors to other places either. As the heir to the house, Root had been quite busy--especially with her mother's whole 'vow of silence' situation--and Shaw couldn't think of a time she'd heard of Root leaving the planet, even before Shaw had arrived there.

"Well, congratulations. That's what planets look like," she said snidely. "Shouldn't you be conserving your strength or something since you're basically useless here?"

Without the thanergy of a planet to draw on, necromancers were unable to use their powers in space, which gave Shaw the upper hand for once. Shaw'd thought about knocking the aggravating necromancer on her ass while she had a chance to, but some small bit of pride held her back. She didn't give a flying fuck if Root appeared before the other houses limping from a bruised butt, however, as Root's cavalier (an unwilling one, yes, but still), it would tarnish her own image as well, something she'd rather avoid, especially in front of anyone from Sixth House.

"Tell me about Sixth House," Root ordered without turning away from the window, as if she'd heard Shaw's thoughts. "Who is it they'll send?"

"No."

They'd had this very brief discussion several times now, and Shaw had been quite firm about not snitching on her own House. Her own _former_ House. Sort of. She hadn't so much been banished from Sixth House as permanently sent to Ninth as an ambassador with the clear understanding that she wasn't coming back. Her ambassadorial duties involved not telling Ninth House anything about Sixth House, never attempting to communicate with Sixth House, and getting tormented by the heir to Ninth House during their infrequent meetings.

Shortly into her acquaintance with Root, Shaw had realized it was in her best interests to avoid her at all costs, and even though Root hadn't exactly sought her out, she had a tendency to turn up out of nowhere and make Shaw's life complicated. Like when she'd appear without warning to watch Shaw training and stare at her in that creepy and intense way she had with a little smile on her face.

"You don't owe them any loyalty, Shaw. They did kick you out, which was very rude, and did you know they wanted to send you to Eighth House initially? I can't even imagine being stuck with such an unpleasant bunch."

Shaw actually _hadn't_ known that little detail and it did nothing to improve her mood. "Yeah, being stuck in a shitty House full of assholes for years would be horrible, wouldn't it? Good thing that didn't happen," Shaw muttered sarcastically.

She couldn't tell if Root had heard her since she didn't respond or turn away from the window. This was the longest Shaw had ever been alone with the secretive heir to Ninth House and she hadn't known what would be expected of her in terms of conversation. So far she hadn't been rebuked for any of her snippy replies--which was disappointing--and the only thing Root had asked of her was assistance boarding the shuttle (which Shaw was convinced had more to do with the way Root had gleefully wrapped her hands around Shaw's upper arm than with actually requiring help).

She'd been ready for Root to try and order her around and force her compliance, but Root had been quiet for most of their short flight, only occasionally turning an appraising stare on her. In fact, the last hour in the shuttle breathing crisp, recycled air and watching the silence of space through the windows, had been far more pleasant than anything that had happened to Shaw in the last three years combined.

Root finally turned away from the window and took her seat, arranging her black robes around herself with an almost comical amount of fussing. Once she finished tugging the last fold into an acceptable position, she raised her black veil and looked up at Shaw with a smile that raised the hairs on the back of Shaw's neck. The white and black paint which made Root's face look like a skull was something Shaw had seen many times before, but here in the sterile shuttle in space, far away from Ninth House, it was disconcerting. The tiny bone stud earrings that pierced both her ears in a trail from lobes to tips weren't only a tacky fashion accessory, but a weapon. Like all Ninth House necros, Root was a bone adept and Shaw had seen her construct whole skeletons using just those bone shards.

"Why _did_ you agree to do this, Shaw? I've been wondering ever since you signed."

"Keep wondering." The document she'd signed before she'd been permitted to get on the shuttle hadn't been anywhere near as bad as it might have been. It had only stipulated that she not divulge information about anything she might have seen or heard while living in Ninth House, an ironic set of rules for someone who was theoretically an ambassador from another House. (Though she'd never sent a single report back to Sixth House over the years. She might not be willing to spill their secrets to Root (if she'd even known any secrets worth spilling), but she couldn't disagree with Root that she didn't owe them anything. What really rankled was that they'd never even _asked_ ). The document had also stated that she must treat her duty as Root's cavalier with the utmost gravity, something she was prepared to do within reason.

The shuttle, which had been idling all this time, whirred back to life and they started their descent towards the planet of First House. Root's hands fidgeted in her lap, the only visible sign she gave of anything other than total confidence.

"Do you have any idea what to expect down there?" Shaw asked as she watched Root's long fingers--unnecessarily tipped with black nailpolish--folding and unfolding in mesmerizing patterns. She'd put off asking until now, wanting to avoid conversation, but with only minutes left on the ship it felt like a safe time to risk a question.

"None at all. Exciting, isn't it?" There was that creepy smile again that boded nothing good. The actual bared teeth made the skull paint look even more macabre.

"You don't have any sort of plan?" Root had always struck her as a schemer, planning out everything far in advance and manipulating all the pieces one by one.

"Of course I have a plan, Shaw, and perhaps if you're nice I'll give you a hint of it eventually."

"How am I supposed to help you if I don't know the plan?"

Root's hideous smile widened. "How am I supposed to trust you with my plans if you won't tell me why you came?"

Shaw made a disgusted noise and returned to pretending to examine her rapier. She couldn't fault Root's logic on that, but someone had to take the first step towards trust and it definitely wasn't going to be Shaw.

Root only made it halfway through their descent before she gave in and closed the shutter on the window to block out the blinding light. The brief glimpse Shaw had of the planet gave the impression of tall white spires and shockingly blue water before her view was mercifully cut off. After three years of living in perpetual gloom, her eyes were more sensitive to the light than they had been, but she suspected it was much worse for Root. Shaw had grown up in the light of the bright star after all, and Root hadn't seen any light brighter than the shadowy halls of Castle Drearburh where she'd lived all twenty-six years of her miserable existence.

"Don't look directly at the star," Shaw warned her. It was meant to be a small peace offering before they ventured out. She had an advantage in the form of having seen a bit of the world outside Ninth House before, and maybe Root would be grateful enough for some basic advice that she'd read Shaw in on her schemes.

"It's adorable that you think I'd be daft enough to try," Root drawled.

Peace offering rejected.

The shuttle settled into the landing pod with a thud and Root was instantly on her feet, veil back down to protect her face. "Up and ready, Shaw. First impressions are important and if you ruin this one it'll cost us both."

Shaw stood and stretched, back kinked from sitting so still the entire flight. She secured her rapier on her belt at her left hip to mirror the long knife at the right, and adjusted the black robe she'd been required to wear. There'd been a lot of bickering about how Shaw had to present herself on this trip, and in the end a compromise had been reached. Robes: yes; ghoulish skull face paint: no.

She stepped up to stand by Root's shoulder as the shuttle door locks clicked on the outside. "Can you promise me one thing, Root?"

Root's eyes were glued to the door, but she tilted her head towards Shaw at the question. "You're asking me for a favor? That's unlike you. I'm intrigued." There was a creak of metal from the outside of the shuttle and the hiss of an airlock door. "Let's hear it then."

"Just...whatever you do out there, whatever messed up Ninth necromancer bullshit you're planning, don't make me look bad."

"Oh, sweetie," Root's voice dripped with honey like an ant trap, "I couldn't make you look bad if I tried."

The door opened and the blinding light flooded the shuttle.

* * *

Shaw's three years at Ninth House had been spent split between training with anyone she could find who knew how to hold a sword, and hiding in the dusty labyrinth of a library. As frustrated as she was about being sent there to rot, she could have lived with it if she'd had some goal or purpose. Sixth House hadn't given her one when she'd left, and Ninth House seemed disinclined to offer her one either which left her stuck with nothing to do and no one to talk to.

The Reverend Daughter would have been the obvious choice of a companion as the only person in Ninth close to her age, but despite the fact that Root had been intriguing in their first meeting, well, there were some complications there that Shaw had thought best avoided. And while Root did shadow her sometimes, she rarely tried to start conversations (which Shaw was thankful for since their exchanges always ended with her flustered and annoyed) which was why Shaw had been completely caught off guard when Root had swept into her favorite hiding spot in the library one day, flanked by the captain of the guard and a few skeletons, and asked her if she was interested in 'getting away from it all' for a few weeks.

The fact that what Root had in mind wasn't anything remotely resembling a vacation became clear almost immediately. The Emperor himself had called on all the Houses to send their heirs to First House, the Emperor's own House (even though he hadn't lived there for thousands of years), to attempt to earn the honor of being raised to the most noble position of Lyctor. Lyctors, the Emperor's personal guard, were figures wrapped in mystery: supremely ancient and powerful beyond anything the houses could imagine. What exactly all this entailed hadn't been mentioned beyond that Root and her cavalier primary were invited to First House to learn more.

"Can't imagine how you'll ever be able to bear leaving all this behind." Shaw flicked the cover of a mildewed book. "Won't the tomb get broken into without you?"

Root didn't bat an eye at that much to Shaw's disappointment. "Highly doubtful."

She thought about asked how Root's mother would rule the House with Root gone since the majority of the duties of leadership already fell on Root due to her mother's...situation, but that was a line of conversation she thought best avoided. It was none of her damn concern if Ninth House turned into a mess. More of a mess.

"So you and Fusco are leaving?" Shaw asked as she eyed the narrow exit past the skeleton guards. She could make it out if she was fast, and find somewhere else to hide until Root got bored and left. "What a shame."

"Fusco " Root said as she stepped sideways to deliberately block Shaw's escape path, "had a tragic accident this morning. Broke both his arms and one leg and has a concussion. He won't be fit for cavalier duty for _months_."

"What happened?" Shaw asked, morbid curiosity getting the best of her.

"He says a skeleton came right out of the dirt under his feet and threw him down the stairs," the Captain said from behind Root.

"He has such a vivid imagination," Root murmured.

"And then another skeleton threw him off the stairwell completely," the Captain continued, glaring sullenly at the wall above Root's head.

"You're the bone wizard, right?" Shaw asked Root. "Can't you just fix him or something?"

Root waved this away. "He wasn't interested in my help," she said. "The whole thing was such a tragic turn of events." She looked somber for a split second and then brightened. "But these things happen and life moves on and now I find myself short a cavalier primary for this extremely important trip."

Shaw began to see where she fit into this. She switched from eyeing the exit behind Root to contemplating what it would take to climb the shelves and escape that way. If she hadn't believed with absolute certainty that Root was behind Fusco's mysterious accident, then she would have guessed that he'd thrown himself off the stairs to escape her. She was about to put her daring acrobatic escape into action when Root had to go and say the one thing that made her hesitate.

"Think about it, Shaw: weeks if not months somewhere other than this planet. Isn't that what you wanted?"

Shaw's eyes narrowed. She crossed her arms and slouched in her chair. If Root thought it was that easy to bribe her into this…. And yet when she opened her mouth what came out was, "What would I have to do?"

Root's smile beneath her ghastly skull face paint was electrifying and feral. "Nothing you wouldn't enjoy, Shaw." At the look of incredulity on Shaw's face she added: "You'll carry out the duties of a cavalier primary and support me while I work to become a Lyctor. Outside of that, I couldn't care less what you do as long as it doesn't interfere with my goals."

Shaw appraised the dusty stacks of books around her that had been her world for the last three years. The smell of this place and seeped so deeply into her nostrils that she dreamed about moldy books now (in between the dreams of skeletons anyway). Tucked in the large red leather tome on the shelf to the left of Root were an assortment of documents that were part of a very elaborate escape plan she'd been working on for the last year, complete with faking a new identity for herself. The remaining problem had been how to actually get off the planet without attracting attention, and now she was being handed the opportunity to leave on a golden plate.

"Okay," she said. "I'll go."

* * *

Shaw's eyes watered in the brightness of the First House shuttle dock. The entire world was a blur of colors in front of her and she fumbled desperately at the pockets of her robe to find something to put over her eyes.

"Here." Something brushed her hand and her fingers closed around cold metal and glass. She held up her new prize and squinted at it.

"You've got to be kidding me," she growled, but nonetheless she unfolded the ludicrous pair of sunglasses--tiny circle lenses on thin wire frames--and jammed them on her face.

Root surveyed her critically and then reached out with one finger to push the glasses up Shaw's nose an unneeded millimeter. She nodded in satisfaction.

Shaw's relief was instant and she wiped her eyes with the hem of her robe so she could get a better look at her surroundings. Out the open shuttle door she had a narrow view of an enormous white fortress looming above them. It must have once been a magnificent palace, but now its walls were cracked and its spires fallen. Overgrowth pulled at it from all sides, wrapped around crumbling balconies, and tugged it towards the surrounding ocean grave.

"I see First House shares the Ninth's preference for living in busted up ruins. Figures."

"Perhaps, though I suspect there's more to this." Root hovered by the shuttle door, her fingers tapping impatiently against the side of her leg. "We've delayed enough, Shaw. Are you ready?"

"After you." Shaw gave a mocking half-bow.

Root turned and swept out of the shuttle with an imperiousness that Shaw only saw from her in official Ninth House gatherings (which she strenuously avoided). She waited a second and then followed after at an appropriate distance, one hand resting on the hilt of her rapier. Her boots rang loudly against the metal of the dock and the muggy air stinking of sea brine left her drenched in sweat before she'd taken ten steps. She halted a few paces behind Root and did her best to stand at attention while spying on the other shuttles she could see landed nearby.

"That'll be Fourth House next to us," Shaw said quietly as she examined their neighbors' shuttle. The stark blue robes with white trim named them even if she'd never seen either of them before.

"As much as I appreciate the insight, stay quiet for now," Root ordered her in a whisper. Her lips barely moved. "Ninth House must be as silent as the grave, Sam."

Shaw scowled at the excessive layers of black robes that her skeleton-loving necromancer was buried within and shut her mouth with a clink of teeth. Just for that, Root wasn't getting jack shit out of her.

She returned to observing the Fourth House duo: the necromancer was a tall, lean woman with a vicious smile, and her cavalier was an even taller man who held himself like a soldier. His rapier was at his hip and he had what looked like a buckler strapped to his back, peaking over one shoulder. An unexciting choice, in her opinion, but she wouldn't discount him for that alone.

She didn't get a chance to scrutinize the other houses as they left their shuttles because a spry older man in a white robe chose that moment to descend upon them. She sized the man up while Root and the newcomer both went through the pleasantries of a meeting of their houses--somber and grim in Root's case and unnervingly enthusiastic in the geezer's. Definitely old--practically fossilized--but he moved easily, as if he were twenty years younger. A blessing of First House perhaps? The bits she picked up on named him as a priest of such, and he named himself as Teacher (which didn't bode well for the activities involved in becoming a Lyctor. Shaw wanted nothing to do with classes).

"If you're ready, you are welcome to come inside. Canaan House has been expecting your arrival, Lady--"

"Lady Root will be sufficient."

Somehow Shaw wasn't surprised she didn't take her family name. Root was of the Ninth House, but, from what little Shaw had seen, she wasn't a proud heir of her family.

"And your cavalier? We had expected a man named Lionel Fusco, but this doesn't appear to be him."

"This is--"

"Shaw." She had no interest in hearing her full name in either of their mouths.

"Shaw the Ninth, then," said Teacher, which was basically the _worst_ thing he could have said.

"That's not--"

It was Root's turn to cut her off. "I think the others are heading inside. Perhaps we should as well."

"An excellent idea!" Teacher beamed at both of them encouragingly. "This way."

Their footsteps echoed on the shuttle dock floor as they followed him towards the breathtaking white ruins of the place he'd called Canaan House. Shaw snuck one look back to the shuttle on their other side to see the necro and cav duo who had only just exited their shuttle and were standing in the bright sunlight taking in their surroundings. She was too far to make out much, but she thought the shorter, dark-haired woman must have been the necromancer, and the blond woman behind her the cavalier. Necromancers, whose powers drew on their own bodies as well, often were more slight and lacked the ability to build muscle the way a cavalier might, but the voluminous green robes the pair was wearing made it impossible to tell.

She lost sight of the pair as she passed through the doors to Canaan House and so turned her full attention to examining the ruined splendor of the place. The floors here were marble veined with gold and the walls were paneled wood, but the marble was cracked and the wood splintered in many places. The entire place smelled of rot and mold. Canaan House was the corpse of a palace, which perhaps made it a fitting place for necromancers to gather.

Teacher led them to an enormous atrium full of couches and armchairs. Overhead, the large windows in the ceiling let the light in through shattered and cracked panes. Several other house pairs had made it here already, each guided by their own white-robed geezer, and had all carefully arranged to keep as much distance as possible between themselves and the others.

Root chose a couch to the side of the room that was black (shocking!) and short enough that Shaw would have had to squeeze in to sit next to her. Shaw stood.

Skeletons in the same white robes that Teacher wore circulated the room, handing out cups of tea to everyone who waited. Shaw took her cup eagerly, hopeful to get to taste something better than the bland offerings of Ninth House. Root held her hands cupped around hers but all her attention was fixed not on the other houses, but on the skeletal servants. Typical Ninth behavior: more interested in a pile of bones than the living. Shaw congratulated herself on being born to a house that didn't think skeletons were the answer to everything.

Across the room from them was a pair of women both in the unmistakable white uniforms of the cohort with red jackets on top. Second House, without a doubt. The necromancer was quite striking and something about her presence impressed Shaw more than her cavalier did, though she was probably going to have to avoid both of them as much as possible while here. Wouldn't do to have Cohort officers take too much of an interest in her.

To their left was a formidable looking older woman sitting in an armchair as if it were a throne with a tall woman with short blond hair and the alert intensity of a guard dog standing at her shoulder. These two Shaw knew, or at least knew of, because everyone knew of the head of Fifth House and her cavalier. Well--she darted a look at Root--almost everyone.

The last pair there was the Fourth House duo she'd seen outside, both sitting on opposite ends of the same couch. The cavalier had set his tea aside and had his buckler on his lap now. The round shield had an enormous spike right in the middle of it, and four smaller spikes arranged around it. Shaw reevaluated her opinion of bucklers as off-hands and wondered if he could be convinced to let her try it out later after all the official nonsense was over.

The sound of boots on the marble floor drew Shaw's attention back to the entrance and she had the extreme misfortune to be mid-sip of her tea when she saw the next pair to arrive. She got one look at the two newcomers in their grey robes and her tea simultaneously went down her throat and up her nose. She fixed her gaze on the floor and tried to choke to death as discreetly as possible.

Next to her, Root went "Hmmm." in a way that made Shaw's blood run cold. She couldn't bring herself to look at Root's face and horrible skull paint beneath her overly-goth veil just then (the horrible, goth face that everyone in the room would associate her with since she was theoretically in charge of protecting it) and looked in the other direction to meet the disapproving stare of the Fifth House matriarch. Shaw hadn't been aware that it was possible for someone to radiate so much disdain while sipping tea, but there was something intensely withering in the way the woman's pinkie finger stuck out as she raised her cup.

More footsteps in the hall gave Shaw an excuse to escape from the wave of judgement and she turned back--careful not to pause as she looked past the two grey-robed figures who'd ruined her day--to find another unfortunately familiar face entering the room, though at least this time she'd expected it. She wasn't able to suppress the _tiniest_ tortured groan though as she met the eyes of the cavalier dressed in the golden and purple robes of Third House. Recognition and surprise crossed his face and then gave way to a cocky grin. She rolled her eyes and finally looked back at Root since looking at other houses was only putting her in a bad mood. The Reverend Daughter of Ninth House raised one eyebrow at her in a look Shaw had no idea how to interpret and then turned away.

Between the twin catastrophes of the last few minutes, Shaw desperately needed something to occupy her mind with other than the sinking certainty that dying of boredom on Ninth House might have been preferable to this. Fate must have decided to take pity on her because the next cavalier to enter the room had such an oiled and pompous air about him--with his slicked back hair and mocking smile--that she was able to channel every fiber of her being into instantly developing a loathing for him that was so intense it pushed her other problems to the side to make room. The new necromancer and his hateable cavalier were wearing shining white robes that made Shaw silently reassess how bad being on team goth actually was by comparison. The necromancer was old--older even than the Fifth House necromancer. She tried to remember what she knew about Eighth House (since there was no doubt that's who they were), but she mostly recalled the general distaste and not any specific details. Self-righteous zealots, they were called.

The Eighth House necromancer sat far too near them for Shaw's liking (though anything short of another planet would have been too close) and his repugnant cavalier slouched on a couch next to him. From closer up, she thought perhaps the cavalier looked a little sickly underneath all his poise and smugness.

"Ah, and here are our final guests," Teacher said. He was perched on the edge of a chipped marble fountain that dominated the center of the room. When he spoke, everyone turned to look first at him, and then at the final guests emerging from the hall. It was the two women who Shaw had seen out by the shuttles, both wrapped in their loose robes of green cloth. Seventh House was another that Shaw had never paid much attention to: their dreamy, picturesque ideas about death gave her a headache, and it seemed like half of them fancied themselves _poets_. Neither of these women looked like they were even vaguely inclined to wax poetic though (which Shaw was grateful for) and she wondered if the necromancer (who was undoubtedly the shorter woman since she could now see the other woman's rapier at her side) was actually about to pass out from how shakily she moved. Her cavalier didn't seem concerned though and was looking around the room with bright, hungry eyes.

"Now that we're all here," Teacher said (all the occupants turned back to him in unison), "we can get started."

Getting started turned out to be a disappointing cover for saying prayers. The first was the usual one she'd grown up with, all full of praising the Emperor who was God and the best Emperor ever and just an all-around swell guy according to whoever had written the thing (she hadn't heard the prayer in years, but her brain hadn't lost its ability to automatically tune out of it), but, when it was over, Teacher turned to _Root_ of all people and asked, "And will the Reverend Daughter favor us with the prayers of the Ninth House?"

Root carefully put down her teacup and folded her hands in her lap before starting into the prayer that Shaw had heard every day for the last three years and that now, looking at the faces around them, she was certain no one else here had ever heard. The worship of the locked tomb that the Ninth House had been tasked with guarding by the Emperor centuries ago wasn't something that extended to the other houses.

"I pray the tomb is shut forever," Root entoned with grave formality. "I pray the rock is never rolled away."

Shaw listened to the whole thing silently and wondered just what it was Root did pray for. Teacher and the other tottering First House ancients all nodded in satisfaction at Root's performance while the rest of the room wore expressions that ranged from confusion to fear, or, in the case of the Eighth necromancer in his shining white robes, disgust. Shaw, who frequently rolled her eyes during prayers on the Ninth, decided it was only right and proper to be deeply offended by this. Maybe she could turn it into an excuse to sock the Eighth cav right in his smug little face later.

When Root finished, Teacher took a wooden box from one of the other old priests and opened it on his lap. He looked up and called, "Dani the Second!"

The Second House cavalier in her crisp, cohort uniform got smartly to her feet and strode over to receive what looked like a large, dull, iron ring from Teacher. Shaw half-expected her to salute before she went back to her seat.

"Tomas the Third!"

Shaw made a point to not meet his eyes, but she maybe took some important notes about the fit of his fancy golden pants. The Third cavalier received an identical iron ring and returned to his seat.

"John the Fourth!"

The tall cavalier in blue with the excitingly violent spiked buckler managed to not have an expression on his face once during his trip to get his iron ring.

"Schiffman the Fifth!"

The Fifth House cavalier moved like a spring that had been wound slightly too tight.

"Kelli the Sixth!"

Shaw developed an extreme interest in examining a crack in the marble floor as the wiry cavalier in grey robes made her way up to claim her ring. She was glad she'd left her ridiculous sunglasses on to help hide her face.

"Martine the Seventh!"

Shaw didn't watch her too closely since she was still playing it safe and having a good staring match with the floor.

"Jeremy the Eighth!"

Shaw noted down the name of the hateable cavalier in white so she'd know what to put on his gravestone later.

"Shaw the Ninth!"

Despite the obvious pattern, Shaw was still a little surprised when she was called instead of Root. After all, she was only here as a bystander. A reluctant guest. This whole game was Root's business. She put her tea cup down next to Root and went to get her ring, resolutely ignoring all the eyes upon her. Teacher handed it over without a word and she examined it as she walked back to stand next to Root's couch. It wasn't just a ring--it was a key ring. One without any keys and therefore useless. Root extended a hand as if to take it from her, and Shaw shoved the ring in her pocket just to be contrary.

"Now, onto business." Teacher shut the box and placed it next to himself on the edge of the dry fountain. "The Emperor has summoned all of you--the most promising scions of your houses and your loyal cavaliers--" (Shaw managed not to snort at that bit). "--to attempt a thing that has not been done in thousands of years. The Emperor's immortal Lyctors were not always so. Long ago they came here as necromancers accompanied by their cavaliers and it was here they ascended to become the most powerful beings in the universe after our King Undying. But over time, the Lyctors have dwindled in number, for even the most blessed of the Emperor's saints can die. Now, he seeks to fortify their ranks from the finest his houses have to offer."

Shaw, who was familiar with both the boring Sixth House necromancer and the obnoxious Ninth House necromancer, wondered if the King Undying, Lord of the Resurrection, the Kindly Lord, Most Holy Emperor, etc, etc, was, in fact, an idiot, or merely very desperate.

"Ascension is not guaranteed," Teacher continued, "and the path will not be an easy one, but glory awaits any who rise to the challenge. Nor is this a challenge that you may undertake alone. Each necromancer and cavalier must strive together for success, and if one fails then so does the other."

Root was well and truly boned (heh) then since Shaw had no interest in helping her achieve the ability to be eternally annoying. A glance around the room showed all the necromancers and cavaliers hanging on Teacher's words, hungry for every scrap of detail.

"You will stay here in Canaan House as you attempt your ascension," Teacher said. "Rooms will be provided to all of you and food. The servants--" He gestured at the skeletons in the white robes. "--will see to any needs you may have. You are not permitted to leave or to communicate with the outside world until you have either succeeded or failed in your task."

That caused a slight murmur through the room, but it died away when Teacher said, "And now for your instructions."

The entire room held its collective breath.

"We ask that you never open a locked door unless you have permission."

The room continued to hold its breath until it became clear that Teacher had finished.

"That's it?" the Eighth House cavalier asked in scornful disbelief. He looked like he might have said more, but his necromancer touched his leg in warning and he slouched back onto the couch, sulking.

"How are we supposed to proceed to become Lyctors?" the Second House necromancer asked.

"How should I know?" Teacher asked, astonished. "I am but a humble servant of First House, certainly not suited to instruct future Lyctors."

Expressions around the room ranged from distressed to outraged to carefully blank.

"Welcome to Canaan House!" Teacher said cheerfully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS NOTE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR BOTH GTN AND THIS FIC!!!! SKIP IF YOU'D RATHER GO IN BLIND.
> 
> So, if you've read gtn, you'll know that it is partially a murder mystery. Multiple murders. A lot of people die pretty horribly. People are going to die in this fic. They may not be the same people as in the book though. That being said, you can look at the archive warnings, or lack of certain archive warnings and draw some conclusions. To me, major characters are anyone in the opening credits of the show: root, shaw, john, fusco, carter, and sir not appearing in this fic. Any of the other characters are fair game and may or may not live through it. Please keep that in mind.


	2. Canaan House

One of the white-robed skeletons led them through the ruined halls of Canaan House to the rooms they'd been designated. Once they were well clear of the others, Root cleared her throat in a pointed way, an obnoxious little "Ahem!" that made Shaw yearn to trip her. Shaw pretended not to have heard, but by the third time she'd had enough.

"What?" The word came out as direct and pointed as a sword thrust.

"I was just wondering, Shaw...." A pause that lasted long enough for Shaw to prompt her again with another brusk "What?"

"Just how many of the house cavaliers have you, ah, _dueled_ with?" She raised one eyebrow and smirked suggestively as if to make sure there was no room for doubt about what she was implying.

Shaw had been resigned to the question since she hadn't exactly managed to be subtle, and she'd been crafting a truly biting yet elegant response since the tea incident. "Fuck off."

And then: "Absolutely not the Eighth cav." Because even if she had no intention of giving Root details of her sex life, she wanted _that_ detail made absolutely clear.

"That leaves six others."

"Why does it matter?" She faked interest in one of the empty rooms they passed: high arched ceilings above dusty wood floors.

"It matters if previous loyalties interfere with your duties as the Ninth cavalier."

Shaw chuckled. "Trust me, there were no loyalties involved. Purely recreational." The conversation was the surreal ending that this surreal day didn't need. "What are my duties now exactly? The old coot didn't give us much to go on."

"Part of the test, I'd imagine. Your only duties are to be discreet and fill any standard cavalier needs that might arise, though there may be no need for those. Perhaps you'll be able to find someone to duel."

"I intend to," she said, not really caring how Root had meant it or how she chose to interpret the answer. Getting to fight someone was currently the only thing she was looking forward to. All the necromancers were bound to be busy ferreting out clues to their Lyctor dream which would leave the cavs free to size each other up properly. She was itching for a good fight, even if it was a stuffy formal duel.

"I'm sure you'll do Ninth House proud."

"I'll do myself proud." She turned back at what she thought was a hushed chortle from Root, but Root's face was composed beneath her veil.

They arrived at the doors to their rooms and their skeleton guide clicked away down the hall leaving them to explore on their own. There was a massive bed in the main room with a cot secured to the end of it. There was little doubt what the sleeping arrangements were meant to be. Shaw went straight to the bed and sprawled across it.

"Dibs."

It took three of Root's skeletons (constructed with truly astonishing speed from a handful of bone chips Root had in her pockets) to haul her out and she took most of the blankets with her.

"I'm not sleeping in _that_." She nodded at the cot while trying to remove a skeletal ribcage from around her ankle. She wasn't going to sleep at the foot of Root's bed like some kind of servant...or pet.

"We could always share." Was it Shaw's imagination or had she batted her eyelashes under her veil.

"No, thanks. I'll take the floor." She took her purloined blankets to the next room and made herself a nest on the floor. The result was still more comfortable than the horrible little sleeping cells at Ninth House had been. Root would likely die of shock when she experienced a real mattress for the first time.

The mattress wasn't the only new thing for Root, Shaw discovered when she went to clean up in the bathroom and found Root in the middle of the room staring at the ridiculously large tub in one corner. Ninth House hadn't been able to afford luxuries like tubs and Shaw had missed them horribly.

"You turn the tap on and close the drain," she explained helpfully. "Like this." She turned the tap and greedily watched the water pour out.

"I'm aware of how it works, Shaw. I did research these things."

"You researched...baths."

Root turned the water back off. "I researched everything."

Shaw left her to use the bathroom first and went back to exploring their rooms. Their bags from the shuttle had been left for them and she took hers over to the corner she'd claimed for herself. A quick check assured her that the most important things she'd stashed there were still present.

Root came out of the bathroom wearing a black night robe that was only slightly different from her regular black robes. Her face had been scrubbed clean of paint and Shaw was startled to realize she couldn't remember ever seeing Root's bare face before. She looked almost normal like this, more approachable. She also ignored Shaw completely and set about unpacking her clothes (black on black on black) into the wardrobe. Shaw spent five minutes staring out the windows at the fading light (a planet with actual day-night cycles!) before she got restless in the silence.

"What did you think of the others?" she asked.

Root's voice was muffled by the wardrobe. "Thoroughly disappointing, though that only works in my favor."

So much for the finest the houses had to offer.

"You've vehemently refused to tell me about Sixth House. Does that extend to the others?"

Shaw considered that. She was fairly annoyed with Root for various reasons, but she didn't have any other reasons to withhold information. "I know some of them, and know of some of them. Who specifically were you curious about?"

"You definitely seemed to know the Third House cavalier, but he's not particularly of interest to me."

Harsh, but understandable.

"The Third necromancer however.…"

"Zoe Morgan, Crown Princess of Ida. Typical Third necromancer by all accounts. Powerful enough, but better known for her political machinations," Shaw said. "She has dirt on everyone." She'd managed never to meet Zoe even once during the several months she'd been involved with Tomas, but there was plenty of gossip to go by.

"Not on me." Root sounded certain.

"True, but only because she doesn't care enough. Bet she will by the time this is over though."

"You're assuming there's 'dirt' to get." Root shut the doors of the wardrobe.

Shaw remained carefully silent on that topic.

"What about Second House?"

Shaw thought back on the imposing necromancer and her silent cavalier. "Don't know anything about them personally, but they're Cohort through and through. Probably have combat medals coming out of every orifice. Cavalier looked like she'd be fun to fight."

Root nodded to herself. "The Second necromancer was the only one I judged to be a potential difficulty. Well, almost the only one."

"A difficulty to what exactly? Is this a competition? I didn't get the impression there was a limit on the number of Lyctors. The more the better, right?"

"Of course it's a competition," Root said as if Shaw were daft. "And it's one I intend to win which means I'll need to make an early start tomorrow." She turned off the switch on the wall and the room grew dark. "Go to sleep, Shaw."

Shaw purposefully stayed up another hour, silently practicing with her rapier in her room. It wasn't that she was unfamiliar with the blade at all, but it wasn't her first choice. Once upon a time, she'd considered becoming an actual cavalier, sworn to a necromancer of Sixth House. It would have provided her with the best of both worlds: the opportunity to fight and the pursuit of knowledge that was the obsessive drive of all of Sixth House. The problem had been the nature of such a partnership--the bond between a necromancer and cavalier ran deep as evidenced by the words of the oath they swore to each other: One flesh, one end. The discomfort she had with swearing herself to another person had dissuaded her in the end, and she'd joined the Cohort for a few campaigns only to return home and royally fuck things up.

And now somehow she'd ended up as a cavalier after all, though not a real one. A real cavalier was sworn to their necromancer in an exchange of vows that Shaw wanted nothing to do with. It was unheard of for a necromancer to have a substitute cavalier.

She'd worked up a sweat by the time she put her sword away and used the sonic in the bathroom to clean up for bed. On her way back to her room, she risked a look into the main bedroom. Root was a lump under the blankets, only her pale face visible. She looked awfully young like this, even if she was two years Shaw's senior. Shaw had been all over the galaxy and had all sorts of experiences that would have been unavailable to Root while she was stuck on the Ninth House, and now Root was out for the first time in the larger world, far away from anything familiar.

Shaw wondered if she was at all scared.

She put the thought aside and cocooned herself in her blankets with a content groan. Tomorrow she'd get the lay of the land and maybe find herself a cavalier to spar with. There were some unfortunate meetings that were bound to take place, but now that she'd had time to prepare herself she wasn't planning on letting them ruin her first time off Ninth House in years. She tucked the iron key ring under her pillow and fell asleep with one hand resting on that hilt of her curved knife.

* * *

Shaw had her knife out and at her attacker's neck before she fully woke up. A horrible monstrous visage loomed above her, its surprisingly nice throat pressed against the curve of her blade.

"Well, good morning to you, too," the monster said.

"Root." She had that gross skull face paint on again. "What the hell do you want?" Root was sitting on top of her where she slept. Shaw had one hand tangled in the front of Root's robe to hold her in place against her knife.

"Just came to get my key ring."

"You mean _my_ key ring." She couldn't check if it was still there without releasing her prisoner.

"The key ring is clearly necessary for the Lyctor trials, which means you won't have any use for it, Sam."

"You could have asked."

Root tried to pull away, but Shaw didn't relax her grip. Root's creepy skull face split into a grin and she _leaned in_ to the knife blade. Shaw had to pull it back to keep from decapitating her. A small trickle of blood ran down Root's neck and Shaw's traitorous eyes followed it before flicking back up to Root's face, which was much much closer to her own now.

"Asked?" Root sounded amused. "Well, okay. How about: please let me have it, Shaw?" Her inflection suggested that a different interpretation of her words might be applicable here.

Shaw became uncomfortably aware of the fact that she was currently being straddled by a woman who could conceivably be considered attractive when she wasn't covered in ghoulish paint and that the woman in question was staring at her lips more than was strictly polite. She carefully released her hold on Root's robe and withdrew her knife. For a second she thought Root was going to lean in closer and do something they'd both regret, but then Root got off her and stood up.

"What're you even going to do with an empty key ring?" Shaw asked as she watched Root adjust her robes.

"Find some keys to put on it, I'd imagine."

Shaw felt under her pillow, but the key ring was already gone. When she looked back up, Root was twirling it around one finger. "Thanks, sweetie." Root winked, a truly grotesque motion with the paint. "I'll see you later."

Shaw almost called after her to ask where the hell she was going when it wasn't even light outside yet, but she stopped herself. It wasn't like she really cared, so why bother? She waited to hear the door shut and then went back to sleep.

Real golden sunlight woke her in the actual morning and she blinked in confusion before remembering where she was. First House. The first step in her path to freedom.

She got ready quickly--only grumbling slightly at the black robes--and set off in search of food. She'd been so tired the night before that she'd passed out without even trying to track down dinner and now she was famished.

Canaan House was a maze of passages, and after ten minutes of aimless wandering she tracked down one of the servant skeletons and got it to lead her to a room full of long wooden tables that smelled like fresh cooking. There was only one other person there: the tall cavalier from Fourth House in his blue robes. He'd brought his buckler with him to breakfast, Shaw noted with approval.

She hesitated in the doorway, not even remotely interested in making friends, but aware that she might have to speak to others if she wanted to spar with some of them. At least this cavalier seemed less objectionable than some of the others had and it had been years since she'd spoken to anyone who wasn't a decrepit old Ninth House foggie (or Root). Finally, she gritted her jaw and went forth to attempt the horrible task of socializing.

The cavalier raised his head as she approached (was that a flash of panic in his eyes?), spoon frozen halfway between his plate and mouth. She regarded him in silence and he regarded her back. Silly of her not to have thought of what to say before coming over. She searched desperately for an appropriate greeting.

"Nice shield. Like the spike."

Relief touched his face. "So do I." He nodded at her belt. "Knife?"

Shaw touched the hilt at her side. "Yeah, never was much for following conventions." A parrying dagger would have made more sense paired with the rapier, but she was very attached to her knife.

"Me either," the man said, and he must have decided that she'd passed inspection because he added: "John Reese of Fourth House. Cavalier primary to Kara Stanton, Baroness of Tisis."

"I'm Shaw of...just Shaw."

Reese nodded like that was a totally normal introduction. He had a half-finished bowl of some kind of soup in front of him, and a chunk of bread and Shaw's mouth watered at the sight.

"You can sit if you'd like," Reese offered, and Shaw plunked herself down on the bench opposite him. Within a minute, a skeleton servant brought Shaw her own soup and bread and she dug in, ravenous. The soup wasn't anything special, but compared to Ninth House fare it was superb.

"Do they not have food on the Ninth?" Reese asked as he watched her devour her food in seconds.

"Nothing worth mentioning." She flagged down a skeleton and made pointed gestures at her empty bowl. The skeletons in this place were damned impressive. Root should take notes. "They have jack shit on Ninth."

The whole place was a wasteland full of skeletons and people old enough that they could pass as skeletons. Other than Root and her useless cavalier, Fusco (who'd been well into his forties), everyone in the Ninth had been ancient. Some sort of flu had wiped out all the kids overnight years ago and the only kid born since had been Root. That little piece of information had been the primary reason Shaw had been asked to sign a form that she wouldn't spill Ninth House's secrets.

"You're not from there originally?" Reese asked. "You talk like you're from somewhere else and also you don't look like...uh…"

"A hideous tomb nun? Thank god for small favors." She considered what she should say. It wasn't like her history was supposed to be a secret, and with Sixth House here it would be impossible to keep it quiet. She'd agreed not to spill any Ninth House secrets, but this secret was her own.

"Sixth House originally. I drew the short straw and ended up as an ambassador to Ninth."

"And how did a Sixth House ambassador end up as the Ninth cavalier primary?"

The skeleton brought Shaw more food and she used stuffing her face as an excuse to think up an answer. Foolish of her not to have prepared for this. "The real cav got injured and I wanted an excuse to get off-planet for a while. Figured this could help forge good relations between Sixth and Ninth or whatever, though I'm not holding my breath."

"Are you sure you're an ambassador?" Reese asked, amusement crinkling the corners of his eyes.

She chewed her bread at him in a threatening way and then gave up. "I'm a fucking lousy ambassador. Better suited to be a cavalier probably. Swords are easier than people. Speaking of which, any interest in some sparring?"

Reese's face lit up and then darkened again. "I think my necromancer might need me, but if she doesn't…." He looked over his shoulder as if expecting her to appear. "Most of the cavaliers will be with their necromancers today, but maybe after everyone's settled in more."

"Well, there goes my only plan for the day."

"Your necromancer won't require you?" Reese asked curiously.

Shaw morosely regarded her empty soup bowl. "She really won't." She wasn't sure why that bothered her.

"John." The new voice wasn't loud, but it demanded obedience. Shaw knew before she looked up that it belonged to the Fourth House necromancer, Kara Stanton. Reese stood up, gave her a brief nod, and went to join his necromancer at the entrance to the room. Shaw saw them speaking quietly, and once Kara cast a hostile look over at her (Shaw met her stare blankly), but they were too far for her to make anything out. Kara swept out of the room with her cavalier in tow, and Reese only had time for a quick apologetic look back before he was gone, leaving Shaw alone with the skeletons. Good thing she had a lot of practice being alone with skeletons.

She lingered over her breakfast long enough for a skeletal servant to offer her a third helping (making this the first time she'd had a charitable thought about a skeleton), but no one else showed up. Maybe everyone had risen in the dead of night like Root had to get a head start on the others. When it was clear that no one else was showing up, she set out on her own to explore.

Canaan House was impossibly large and complicated. Shaw had always prided herself on having a good sense of direction, but the confusing layout and the way passages seemed to double back and wrap around each other made it a nightmare to keep track of. It also wasn't the safest place to explore. More than once, her foot went through a rotting floorboard, and there were parts of the crumbling ceiling that looked ready to fall. And that was only the inside.

Shaw found her way out onto one of the sweeping verandas and her nostrils were assaulted by the briney scent of the ocean below. She jammed her sunglasses back on as the sunlight overwhelmed her, cursing at Ninth House in general as she did. A good half of the huge balcony had fallen away and left the edge unprotected. She cautiously inched over to the edge and peered over at the dizzying drop to rocks and waves far, far below. Putting her back to the drop, she looked up at the monstrosity of the building, trying to get a sense for exactly where she was in the place. Who the hell would ever have wanted to live in such a confusing home? Clearly the Emperor and his Lyctors were all completely mad, not that that came as a surprise.

Back inside, she wandered down more ruined hallways, past an endless number of doors. Teacher had warned them against opening locked doors without permission, but most of the ones she found weren't locked. Many were jammed, wood swollen to lock them in their frames, and some were hanging in pieces. None of them had anything of particular interest behind them.

Canaan House must have been magnificent in its time and she could still catch glimpses of that past from time to time. One hallway--wide enough to fit a shuttle in--had almost pristine black and white tiled marble floors and sunlight streaming in through windows that stretched from ceiling to floor. Some of the glass was shattered, but green vines and leaves grew through the broken parts and up the walls inside to twine around pillars. Even in decay, there was beauty here.

Towards mid-day, she found stairs down that took her down to a part of the building she definitely hadn't stumbled on yet. A pair of doors opened up into a foul-smelling room with a huge pit in the floor. It was so filthy that it took her a second to realize the place must have once been a pool. On the far side of it, through another set of doors was what must have been a training room once. The floor was paved with smooth stones and wooden benches were arranged along the walls. Ancient weapons were still hung here and there and a mirror ran the length of the back wall.

Her stomach growled, so she put her explorations on hold to go find more food. Getting back to the room where she'd had breakfast took some work, but in the end she was able to manage without having to find a skeleton to guide her. The smell of cooking washed away all the more unpleasant smells she'd dealt with that day and she sped up as she approached.

She hadn't been sure what to expect in terms of fellow diners, but she definitely hadn't expected the place to be empty. Almost empty anyway. Five minutes into the fish and salad that was placed in front of her, Teacher appeared and took the seat across from her, not at all put off by her glares from behind her sunglasses.

"And what does the cavalier of Ninth House think of our humble abode?" he asked with a cheerfulness that made her want to kick his bench out from under him.

"At least it's not freezing," was the nicest thing she could come up with. Castle Drearburh back on the Ninth had been an iceberg. "Have you seen the Reverend Daughter today?"

"Gave you the slip, did she?" Teacher asked with a chuckle that Shaw thought unnecessary. "Oh, yes, hours and hours ago. An early riser, isn't she?"

"We were supposed to meet up, but I got turned around. Any idea where she might be?" It wasn't something she would have asked any of the others, but Teacher was either harmless or some mastermind controlling this whole thing which meant asking him wasn't much of a risk either way.

"She could be anywhere by now," Teacher said unhelpfully. "Perhaps she'll return to your rooms when you fail to find her."

"Yeah, maybe," Shaw said doubtfully. Was she going to have to wake up in that middle of the night if she wanted to find out what Root was up to? Her original plan had been to avoid her at all costs, but she couldn't help but be curious. "You said that this whole Lyctor thing relied on both the necromancer and the cavalier, right? What part is the cavalier supposed to play?"

"Oh, I'm afraid I can't help you there," Teacher said. "I've told you all I know already."

"Is there something dangerous here though?" Shaw asked. "Something a necromancer might need a cavalier to protect them from? Or are we all supposed to fight each other?" She couldn't think what use a cavalier would be without a threat.

"Oh goodness me, no. There's no need for any of you to fight each other. As for danger…." He looked serious for once. "Perhaps you should speak to your necromancer when you locate her. I have already given her the warning I was required to provide."

Shaw would have pressed him for more, but at that moment the necromancer and cavalier from Fifth House entered the room. Lady Control, the head of Fifth House, barely spared her a glance, but her overly alert cavalier, Schiffman looked at Shaw like she expected her to kick over her table and attack. Shaw decided she'd lost her appetite and excused herself. Teacher only smiled and nodded as she left.

She passed the second half of the day much as she'd passed the first: aimlessly wandering around the huge building trying to find something--or someone--interesting. She was starting to think that all the others had found some secret passage to scurry away through when she finally stumbled on a pair of them in what appeared to be a library. A Canaan house library felt like it should have been old, dusty, wooden bookshelves, dark shadows in the stacks, and ancient tomes, but this one looked sterile, well lit with metal shelves and paneling. At a table on one side of the room sat the Fifth House necromancer, her cavalier standing at attention behind her even here. These two again.

Shaw took a step back before she was spotted and lurked in the doorway. There were a few minutes of nothing but the quiet rustling of flimsy and then she was rewarded for her troubles.

"We're going to have to get all of this documented, of course," said a voice that had to be Control's. "It may all be the property of First House, but this place is full of valuable information that we require access to."

"The communication channels, ma'am, they're--"

"Finding a way to reestablish communications with the outside world will be your top priority. This entire exercise is ridiculous. I am starting to doubt that the Emperor is even involved in this scheme."

"But the First House servants, would they be acting on someone else's orders?"

"We shall have to find that out. In the meantime, it's vital to account for as much of the historical material remaining here as possible."

"Understood, ma'am."

Shaw rolled her eyes at the obsequious groveling of the cavalier and left quietly. Digging through ancient history was just about at the bottom of her list of fun things to do here, and if Fifth House was only focused on securing historical shit then they were best avoided completely.

The light had started fading outside the windows and she decided to try and find her way back to her room. Maybe she'd take a bath before getting dinner. She was starting to get the hang of navigating through the maze of a building, enough so that she felt a certain amount of confidence that her current route was the quickest way back. She turned down a hallway that looked familiar, and then came to a halt at the sight of two figures halfway down. Their white robes looked spotless--which should have been impossible in a place this dirty--and their eyes were full of contempt when they saw her.

Shaw carefully rested her hand on her rapier.

"Out of our way, shadow cultist," the oily cavalier sneered. He didn't draw on her, but his hand was on his rapier as well and his robes revealed a sheathed blade of some kind at his other hip.

"It'll take a lot more than just you to make that happen," she said. She'd been hoping for a fun sparring match today, but a real fight with the promise of busting this guy's nose was way better.

"Now, now, Brother Lambert." The necromancer stepped around his cavalier. "I don't think our friend Shaw the Ninth here is really 'the Ninth', so shadow cultist may not be the most accurate term."

Shaw glanced down to make sure she hadn't accidentally put on an 'I'm not from Ninth House' shirt that morning. Was it the lack of face paint? The fact she didn't have bone piercing stuck in every part of her body? Maybe she needed to start conversations with 'I think skeletons are swell' if she wanted to pass.

"She does have the bearings of a soldier, but not the rigidness of Second House," the necromancer said. "Cohort trained, unless I miss my guess. Fourth House, perhaps?"

Shaw stayed silent and the necromancer must have taken that as confirmation because he smirked hugely, his wrinkled face contorting hideously in the process. Shaw wondered if he was older than Teacher, because he definitely had a few decades on the Fifth House necromancer.

"They do say that Fourth House is rash, always rushing in first and thinking later. If they survive, that is. I suppose pledging yourself to a Ninth House heretic takes a certain type of idiotic bravery."

The cavalier puffed himself up more and more with each of his necromancer's words until Shaw expected him to burst and deflate like a balloon. His hand was still on his rapier, but the threat seemed idle. This was someone who wasn't used to having to carry through on his threats. Not the dangerous one of the pair, then.

"Are we done here?" she asked.

"Tell me, child, do you really think it wise to help the heretical little bone nun achieve more power?"

Shaw chose to take issue with 'child' and added it to the list of reasons she was justified to kick this dude's dusty ass into the ocean, right under 'has an annoying face'. As Root's cavalier she might have been offended at the rest, but she suspected Root would just be delighted with the epitaph.

"And instead I'm supposed to think that a bunch of self-righteous zealots should get to level up?" She didn't wait for the undoubtedly tedious answer. "Honestly I couldn't give a fuck about any of you."

The necromancer's eyes narrowed and his smirk turned cunning. "Ah, then you'll have no problem if we intervene when your adopted necromancer inevitably steps out of line?"

The only loyalty that Shaw owed Root came from some words scribbled on a piece of flimsy she'd signed, and yet….

"Just stay away from us. _Both_ of us." She looked at the poncy cavalier. "Though he's welcome to come get his ass kicked anytime he wants. I could always use a good laugh."

The cavalier (Lambert? And what had Teacher called him yesterday? Jeffery? Jerome?) drew his rapier this time, his horrible little face all screwed up with rage. Shaw regarded his stance, the position of his back leg, the angle of his wrist, the placement of his fingers on the grip. She didn't bother to draw her own weapon.

"Brother Lambert." The necromancer's voice was quiet but sharp. Lambert finally fully embraced his balloon potential and deflated, a petulant expression on his face as he sheathed his weapon.

"I'm certain we will meet again," the necromancer said as his cavalier sulked next to him. "Perhaps you should rethink whatever depraved quest you find yourself on and throw yourself at the mercy of your true house while you still are able to be redeemed." He adjusted his white robes. "Lambert, come."

The necromancer of Eighth House and his cavalier left down the hallway in the opposite direction, leaving Shaw to return to her rooms alone through the darkening halls of Canaan House.

* * *

Root wasn't in their rooms when Shaw got back, and Shaw used the opportunity to enjoy the first hot bath she'd had in over three years. The bathroom door had no lock on it, so she dragged a chair in and wedged it under the handle. The last thing she needed was to have Root come back and send in a bunch of skeletons to torment her while she was trying to relax.

The hot water smelled a little odd, but it felt good enough that she was willing to overlook that. She relaxed in the water and let her mind drift over everything she'd seen and done during the day. There had been a depressing lack of progress both in finding some sparring companions and in figuring out what everyone here was up to. Striking out blindly hadn't paid off; she needed a plan going forward.

She put plan making on hold long enough to return to the dining room and get dinner for herself. The room was empty, though she almost ran right into the Second House pair as they were leaving. Terse nods were exchanged. The necromancer looked like she might say something so Shaw quickly ducked past them. She had more than exceeded her socializing limits for the day.

No one else showed up as she ate and she enjoyed the quiet and the cool breeze through the broken glass in the ceiling above. The place was a bit of a nightmare, but at least the planet's climate was nice. Sixth House was on a planet so close to Dominicus that the idea of having a large ocean--or even a small one--was laughable. She wondered if there was a way down to the water from where they were and if it was possible to swim in it safely. Maybe she'd ask Teacher the next time he showed up.

For lack of anywhere else to go, she returned to her rooms after eating and was rewarded (or punished perhaps) by Root's presence. The Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House sat cross-legged on her bed scribbling in a notebook. Her hair and robes were dusty and her face paint was streaked by sweat. She barely looked up as Shaw entered.

"Have you unlocked all the mysteries of Lyctorhood yet?" Shaw asked as she took her boots off.

"Hmm?" Root paused long enough to look at her. "No, but I think I'm on the correct path for now. More than I can say for some of the others."

Shaw's robes got tossed in a heap on the floor, leaving her in her shirt and pants. The rapier she placed in the next room near her bed, but the knife she kept on her.

"What about you?" Root called after her. "Did you make any new friends? Add another cavalier to your list of conquests?"

When Shaw returned to the bedroom to glare at her in person, Root waggled her eyebrows suggestively. It was so absurd with the skull paint that Shaw couldn't bother to take offense.

"I think they're all following their necromancers around in case the rotting furniture here looks cross-eyed at them." The most dangerous thing she'd seen all day had been rusted nails. "I did cross paths with a few of our new housemates. Can't say I think much of them." The Fourth House cav had been alright, but his necromancer hadn't impressed her.

She waited for Root to prompt her for details, but she had returned to her notebook and apparently forgotten Shaw existed. Shaw considered going to bed and leaving Root to her own obsessions, but she couldn't quite make herself go.

"If whatever you're all playing at is really so dangerous, then maybe you should take me along as backup?" she suggested, hating herself for it.

"Are you worried about me, Sam?" Root's smile was teasing.

"No, but if you get yourself killed here, then I'm shit out of places to go." She did have plans to try and make her way back to the Cohort after this was settled and she'd safely loaded Root back into a shuttle, but if that didn't work out then going back to Ninth was her only immediate recourse, and she couldn't do that if Root got killed on her watch.

"I can take care of myself, Shaw. That's been my privilege since long before you showed up in my life."

Shaw thought about the implications of that, of the things she knew about Root and her life on the Ninth that Root probably wouldn't have wanted her to know. She held her tongue.

"The Eighth House pair are definitely gunning for you," she said at last. "The cavalier is total shit--wouldn't last five seconds in a fight--but the necromancer is too creepy for his own good."

"Greer."

"What?"

"The Eighth necromancer is named John Greer." Root shut her notebook with an air of finality and placed it aside on the black bedsheets. Whoever had furnished these rooms had decorated accordingly for their stay. "The Eighth House has always hated the Ninth. Zealots and heretics don't mix well, I suppose."

Shaw had heard bits and pieces about Eighth House over the years. 'Zealot' was a popular word choice for describing them, as was 'self-righteous'. While the Ninth House were deeply devoted to the Emperor, they were equally devoted to the Locked Tomb--the tomb at the bottom of Ninth House that supposedly held the one true ancient enemy of the King Undying. Hell, sometimes she thought Root was _more_ devoted to the tomb than to the ruler of the Nine Houses. It was easy to see how that could lead to friction with the Eighth.

"I'd watch your back around those two," she said.

"You seem _awfully_ concerned about my well-being."

"No, I'm nothing of the sort. What I am is your cavalier--temporary cavalier--which means not only will what little remains of my reputation be demolished by you getting killed, but I'll probably be called to answer a lot of questions about where I was while you were off being murdered and why I wasn't there with you."

Root leaned back on her hands, head angled to one side. "What exactly are you asking for? Did you want to tag along and run errands for me?"

"No!" Shaw was disgusted to realize she had no clue what she _did_ want. "You know what? Never mind. I hope Eighth House pitches you off a balcony." She returned to her room and slammed the door behind her. Or tried to anyway. The door was old and heavy and the hinges rusted so the best she could do was shove it with all her body weight until it was only open a crack. Not quite the exit she'd wanted, but it would have to do.

She resolved herself to wake up early the next morning and beat Root out the door. It would be easy to follow Root from a safe distance because she wore so much bone jewellery that she went click-clack with every step. Sleep eluded her though, and an hour later she crept to peer through the crack of the open door to spy on her necromancer. Root was a lump under the black covers, but one of her bare legs stuck out over the side of the bed, pale in the dim light. Shaw stared at it for longer than was appropriate and then went back to her blankets.

She woke up at the crack of dawn the next morning to find Root long gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> next chapter will clear up any remaining uncertainty about who all the other cavs and necros are and i'll post a little list of who's in what house thing as an extra chapter along with it as well for quick reference since there's like 16 people and that's Too Many


	3. The Nine Houses

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Deciding who was in which house probably took me longer than writing the entire damn fic. I went through a ton of variations trying not only to get people in a house that made sense for their character but also making sure the necro/cav pairings made sense for the most part, or didn't clash too badly at least. I ended up with a few characters I don't write as often and leaving out a few I'd hoped to have, but it all worked out for narrative purposes in the end.

Over the next few days, Shaw settled into a routine of sorts. Each morning she woke earlier than the previous one, determined to catch Root before she left, and each time she found Root already gone (which by the fourth day made it clear that Root was getting three hours of sleep at the very most). After cursing at Root's empty bed she went back to sleep and angry-napped until a more decent hour. Some mornings she'd catch John Reese getting breakfast and exchange a few stories about their time in the Cohort before his necromancer showed up to summon him away.

Occasionally some of the others could be found eating there, but Shaw avoided them as much as was possible. She'd told herself that she needed to handle the situation like an adult, so whenever she spotted Third or Sixth House, she immediately vacated the area and found somewhere to skulk around until the coast was clear.

Even with Shaw's finely honed skills in avoiding people and the general secretiveness of all the houses, she still picked up bits and pieces of information on her unwanted companions--some from Reese, some from Root in the evenings, and some from listening in to conversations from the shadows. By the end of the third day, she had learned at least everyone's names and had started scribbling down notes on a couple pieces of flimsy she kept stuffed in her pocket.

_Second House:_

_Joss Carter - Necromancer, Ranked Captain of the Cohort_

_Dani Silva - Cavalier, Ranked First Lieutenant of the Cohort_

_Notes: Both of them are Second House to the core, Cohort officers before all else. Marginally saner than most here. Wouldn't have minded serving under Captain Carter back in the Cohort._

While the Second House pair seemed less objectionable than the rest, Shaw made it a point to avoid them after they came face to face in the hallway the third morning.

"You served in the Cohort," Carter said with certainty.

Shaw tensed like a wild animal ready to flee. "Uh, what?"

"You hold yourself like a soldier. I'd recognize Cohort conditioning anywhere." Carter examined her far too closely for her liking. "We haven't had anyone from the House of the Ninth in the Cohort in almost a generation. Who did you report to?"

"Sorry, can't talk now. My necromancer needs me." She fled, grateful that she'd discovered the magic words 'my necromancer needs me' that seemed to provide an unlimited number of unquestioned escapes from awkward circumstances. Everyone here was intimately familiar with the dynamic between necromancers and cavaliers and the understanding that a cavalier would run barefoot across lava for their necromancer went without saying.

The problem was that these two, with their stiff white uniforms and scarlet jackets, were the biggest threat to Shaw's future on the planet. She didn't think she'd have that much trouble faking all the necessary forms and files to get herself back into the Cohort under a different name, but even though the likelihood of her ever running into these two was extremely small, she'd be looking over her shoulder and paranoid the rest of her career. Better to avoid them as much as possible and hope they forgot all about the existence of Sameen Shaw.

_Third House:_

_Zoe Morgan - Necromancer, Crown Princess of Ida_

_Tomas Koroa - Cavalier, Knight of Ida_

_Notes: Zoe Morgan is known more for her ability to manipulate people and politics than for her necromancy, but it wouldn't be wise to underestimate her abilities. Tomas is a decent cavalier for duels, though his style is too showy for a real fight._

There had only been so long she could keep dodging her past, and on the fifth day it caught up to her in the form of Tomas Koroa in his very well-fitted pants. The pants were purple this time, with golden trim, and his robes matched. Shaw wondered if anyone had packed clothes that weren't in their house colors or if they'd all prepared for endless posturing.

"Sameen!" Tomas called from the end of the hallway Shaw had been investigating. She hastily shoved the sheath of flimsy she'd been paging through behind her back before turning to meet him. She was under the impression (both from things Teacher had told her and from the random things she'd found) that Canaan House had primarily been the home of the original Lyctors. Which meant one of the Emperor's most holy saints had left some extremely pornographic sketches lying around.

"Uh, hi."

"I've been searching all over for you," Tomas said as he closed the distance between them. "Everything has been so busy since we arrived and today has been the first day I've had any time to myself."

"Yeah, busy. Definitely," Shaw agreed. "Listen, my necromancer--"

"I wanted to invite you to a set of practice matches I've negotiated with some of the other cavaliers. Some friendly sparring to help us blow off steam while our necromancers are busy."

Shaw hesitated, hating herself for it. That _was_ exactly what she'd been after since day one.

"Who else did you get?" she asked.

"Second and Fourth. The Fifth House cavalier said she might make an appearance as well."

He'd made an impressive sweep of the most martial cavaliers, but then Tomas had always been good at charming people.

"Okay, fine."

The immediate downside to her decision was that she had to walk there with him, which meant conversation, which meant she was instantly cranky.

"I didn't hear about your ambassadorship until quite recently," Tomas started cautiously.

Shaw gave him five points for not wasting time on small talk and then took away ten for his choice of topic. "Not much to know."

"I'd thought you were still in the Cohort," Tomas continued. "Of course we all heard about Wilson's death, but none of the details. I never thought that you were the one who--"

"Well, I was. And now I'm here. There's nothing to discuss." There weren't enough words in their language to fully express how much she did _not_ want to talk about Wilson or anything else that had happened.

"Zoe has a lot of influence, you know, I could talk to her and--"

"Drop it."

Tomas looked distressed, but he only nodded. "Of course, whatever you wish." He hesitated and then added, "It's good to see you again."

He didn't seem to expect a response to that, evidence of one of the reasons she'd kept seeing him for as long as she had. The conversation they'd just mostly skimmed over had been most of the reason she'd been avoiding him all week, and now it was over, she relaxed.

"Is this whole thing on the level?" she asked as she followed him down a staircase.

"The practice matches?"

"No, all of this. First House. The priests. Lyctors. Something doesn't smell right to me."

"That would be all the rot and mold, no doubt." He smiled to show it was a joke. "Or perhaps the hair gel that the Eighth House cavalier is using."

The last bit actually got a smile out of her. "Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed that. But I meant that this whole setup seems off."

She didn't trust anyone else here enough to bring it up, but she wasn't worried about Tomas causing her trouble, not as long as she didn't give him anything to worry about. Tomas had always prided himself on being able to have a personal life outside of his relationship with his necromancer, and being able to keep the two worlds separate, so separate that back when they'd been sleeping together regularly she'd never once met Zoe Morgan.

She hadn't given it any thought at first, not right up until he made some comment about not wanting her to get scared out of their relationship by his royal necromancer. The fact he'd assumed there was a relationship to be scared out of ended the one they'd had and while they hadn't stayed in close contact, they hadn't left on bad terms either. She hadn't seen him in years, but, unless something drastic had changed, she had some measure of confidence in what he would or wouldn't do.

"As far as I'm aware, this is all on the level," he said. "Why? Did something give you the impression it wasn't?"

"Nothing specific. Just feels off." She could tell now that they were headed towards the ruined pool room that she'd found on the first day. It wasn't where she would have chosen for fighting, but at least the floors had seemed solid.

"Well, I'd agree it's not the most hospitable of locales, but we're working on making it a little better."

"Better? How?" But as they entered the pool room her question was answered for her. The gross-looking pool pit in the center of the room was still probably a public health hazard, but there were half a dozen skeletons down in it now with mops and buckets scrubbing furiously. There was still a spectacular amount of funky green and black mold on most of it, but, in the spots the skeletons were concentrating on, white stone was visible beneath it.

"You're actually going to swim in that bacteria pit?" Shaw asked as they walked past it. Up ahead she heard the unmistakable sound of blades crossing and it sent a thrill through her.

"I'm waiting to see--"

She completely missed how his sentence ended because they came into view of the training room on the far side of the pool. Standing in the center of the flagstone floor, two cavaliers faced each other, rapiers drawn. She doubled her pace and Tomas had to hurry to keep up with her.

_Fourth House:_

_Kara Stanton - Necromancer, Baroness of Tisis_

_John Reese - Cavalier, Knight of Tisis_

_Notes: Reese seems normal enough. Fourth House is known for breeding reckless idiots who charge off into battle without thinking first and have the shortened life expectancies that go with it, but so far he seems calm. Stanton is kind of a bitch._

John Reese didn't stand like a cavalier. Or rather he stood like a cavalier who wasn't accustomed to dueling and was only doing the bare minimum to account for protocol. His body was too crouched, his feet not positioned quite right, and his entire demeanor screamed 'murder' rather than 'elegant sword duel'. Fourth House were the vanguard of the Empire and Reese had likely been on the front lines of combat since he was young. The fact he was still alive spoke volumes for his skill.

His opponent was the Second House cavalier, Dani Silva. By comparison, her stance was absolutely flawless, trained into her almost from birth. She would likely have also seen the chaos of combat in the Cohort, but everything about her was up to standards including her dueling form.

Shaw entered quietly and took a seat on a wooden bench near the door, her eyes locked on the fight. Reese towered over Silva, even in his fighting crouch, but Silva didn't seem put off by the size difference. She was definitely being cautious the same way Shaw would have been against an opponent with that much of an advantage in reach, but she was still aggressive, initiating most of the attacks while Reese stayed on the defensive.

It was a clever tactic on his part--letting Silva show him all her moves while giving nothing in return--one which Shaw put down to Reese being probably a decade older at the least and just flat out having more experience. Silva was good (extremely good, Shaw had to admit), but not as good as she'd be after a few more years of experience.

Shaw saw the moment that Reese switched tactics and she sat forward on the bench in anticipation. She could see how all of it was going to play out in the instant before it happened: Reese's parry with his shield, Silva having trouble disengaging her rapier from the spikes on his shield, his riposte which she should have been able to block with her dagger but she was just a half-second too slow due to the situation with her rapier, and, finally, Reese's blade tapping her lightly on the chest.

"That was nicely done," Tomas said quietly from next to her. (She hadn't even noticed him sit down). "He's very cautious for a Fourth House fighter."

"He's still alive, so he must be."

Reese and Silva saluted each other and cleared the floor.

"Did you want to--"

Tomas's question was cut off by the abrupt arrival of a new cavalier.

_Fifth House:_

_Control (Doesn't use a surname?) - Necromancer, Lady of Koniortos Court_

_Schiffman (Also no surname) - Cavalier, Seneschal of Koniortos Court_

_Notes: For someone so well known, Control is still a mysterious figure. The head of her house rather than the heir like most here. Rules her house with an iron fist and thinks Fifth rules all Nine Houses. Extreme traditionalist even for the Fifth. Not much is known about her cavalier other than that she's loyal with the sort of fanatical passion that would put Eighth House to shame._

The Fifth House cavalier was wearing the brown and gold of her house on an outfit somewhere between a uniform and a suit. She regarded everyone in the room with suspicion before her eyes settled on Tomas.

"Is this it then?"

Tomas rose and ushered her in. "Yes, you missed Fourth and Second's bout, but you're just in time for your own."

The cavalier, Schiffman, looked over everyone in the room again and then motioned at Reese and Silva. "I'll try Second or Fourth."

Shaw stood. "You're going to fight me."

She saw Schiffman look her over more closely and dismiss her again. "Ninth House has no warriors left and I have no wish to hurt an amateur."

Shaw ignored the distressed sound from Tomas behind her and moved to the center of the room. "If you want to fight anyone else here, you have to fight me first." When Schiffman looked like she might object, Shaw added, "What's the extra three minutes going to cost you?"

Schiffman didn't look pleased, but she did walk to stand across from Shaw. She drew her rapier--a truly beautiful piece--and laid her off-hand arm across her chest so her dagger was displayed along her collarbone. Shaw mirrored her, drawing her very plain rapier and her slightly curved knife. She saw Schiffman scoff at her choice of off-hand and she smiled ever so slightly. This was going to be _fun_.

"To the first touch," Tomas decreed from the sidelines.

"Schiffman the Fifth," Shaw's opponent called. "Let's get this over with."

"Shaw the Ninth." The title sounded less strange than it had a few days ago, but still odd. "My pleasure."

She was focused on her opponent, but she could still hear the slight nervousness in Tomas's voice as he called, "Seven paces back--turn…"

She rolled her eyes as she walked her paces. Honestly, she wasn't going to actually hurt the other woman. Tomas was such a big baby.

"Begin!"

All thoughts of Tomas and titles vanished as Shaw moved forwards. She felt like she'd been freed after months of captivity. How long had it been since she had a new opponent?

Schiffman wasn't bad exactly, she was probably quite decent for a court cavalier, but she was lacking the sheer joy of combat that everyone else in the room had. She was also not very quick on the uptake since she was the only one in the room who didn't know how the fight would end within a second of it starting.

Schiffman attacked first, a clean thrust that carried with it all her contempt for Ninth House, and Shaw parried it lazily with her knife. If the Fifth House cavalier hadn't run her mouth off then maybe, just maybe, Shaw would have given her a second chance, but second chances were reserved for people who didn't have the largest stick ever up their ass. Schiffman's dagger came up to parry Shaw's blade, but she was far, far too slow and could only look down in astonishment as the point of the rapier tapped her lightly on the chest. Someone on the other side of the room snickered.

"Did you want to try that again?" Shaw asked as she straightened up from her lunge.

Schiffman's face turned red with fury and she turned to take her seven steps without even acknowledging Shaw.

"Uhm, turn!" Tomas hurried to catch up to the events. "Begin!"

A soldier would have known that channelling anger into a fight was liable to make you careless, but Schiffman wasn't a soldier. She charged at Shaw, trying to match her speed from the first round. Shaw batted her rapier away easily and stepped to the side. The remnants of the fighters of Ninth House had all been so old they could have been mistaken for skeletons, but they had been absurdly quick on their feet and, compared to them, Schiffman moved like she was knee-deep tar.

Shaw let her try one more thrust, just for fun, parried with her rapier and stepped forwards, low, to slam Schiffman's knuckles with the hilt of her knife. In a real fight she would have taken her fingers off, but sending the rapier flying across the room would have to do. She didn't bother with her own rapier and simply touched the point of her knife to the other woman's throat. Technically against the rules, which was something that would have mattered to someone who had a single fuck left to give.

"Oops," Shaw said. She held Schiffman's gaze as she brought her rapier up to tap her on the side in the valid target area for a duel, officially ending the match.

"Match to Ninth House," Tomas announced. "And maybe we should call it a day?"

Shaw stayed put for a second longer than necessary before withdrawing her knife and stepping back. Schiffman quickly collected her rapier from the floor and slammed it back into its sheath.

"Ninth House fights without honor," she said with intense dislike in her voice.

"And Fifth House fights without skill," Shaw replied and then ruined the moment by flipping her off.

"We will revisit this insult in the near future," Schiffman snapped. The room stayed quiet as she stormed out.

"I came here to have a good time and I'm feeling so attacked right now," Shaw said as they watched Schiffman storm past the pool. "Maybe I should have decked her."

"And here I was worried you'd let your skills rust while stuck out at the ends of the galaxy," Tomas said. "I swear you've gotten even faster."

"Your speed is very impressive." Dani Silva had joined them and there was approval in her eyes. "And Fifth House was out of line. Your attack may not have been strictly by the rules, but it was justified."

Shaw decided not to blow the good impression she'd just made with a snide comment about where Second House could stick their love of the rules. Reese was hovering in the background, and while he stayed silent, she could see a hint of a nasty, satisfied smirk at the corner of his lips.

"I've fought her before," Silva continued. "She's actually much better than she just showed herself as. Arrogance and anger have no place in a fight."

"I'd be more worried about her necromancer," Tomas said. "She's a real terror and likely won't be fond of you after this."

"You think she's actually going to tell her necromancer that I just handed her her own ass twice in under a minute?"

"Oh, I don't think those two have any secrets from each other," Tomas said with a grin.

Shaw had heard that rumor as well years ago, though she'd forgotten it. "I thought that sort of thing was usually frowned upon." The bond between a necromancer and cavalier was not meant to be one that involved love or sex.

"It is, though Fifth House has exceptions," Silva agreed, and Tomas nodded. Behind them, Reese took up a sudden study of the floor.

"So who do I get to fight next?" Shaw asked, hefting her knife in one hand. That had barely even counted as a fight.

"Perhaps we should wait until tomorrow for anything more," Tomas suggested. "Clear the area in case Lady Control decides to pay a visit."

"I'm not scared of her," Shaw protested. "Even if she is all influential or whatever, what's she going to do? Double banish me?"

"Banish?" Silva looked far too interested and Shaw cursed herself for running her mouth in front of Second House.

"Uh, I think my necrom--"

"Excuse me." They all turned at the new voice from the door and there, as if Shaw had summoned her from the gothest reaches of space, was the Reverend Daughter of the Ninth house in all her skeleton-chique glory. "Can I borrow you a moment, Shaw?"

Five seconds earlier, Shaw would have kicked Root into the gross pool for interrupting, but now she was grateful for the excuse to slip away. She put away her weapons, gave a polite nod to the others, and followed Root out.

"What did you need me for?" Shaw asked as they climbed the stairs up to the main floor.

"Nothing in particular. It just looked like you needed a quick out."

Shaw stopped in the middle of the hall. "How did you...were you watching that whole time?"

Root grinned at her ghoulishly. "I had been hoping to see you face a real challenge, but there was something intensely satisfying about watching you absolutely ruin that snotty cavalier." She reached out and straightened Shaw's robes fractionally. "You upheld the honor of the Ninth House, Shaw, and you have my thanks for that."

"I signed that form saying I would," Shaw said. "Also, she pissed me off." A thought occurred to her. "If you're so grateful, tell me where the hell you run off to every morning?"

Root only smiled at her and turned away. Shaw trailed her back to their rooms since she had nowhere better to be. Maybe later she could find Tomas and Reese when the threat of Second House wasn't around and they could go back to telling her how great she was at kicking ass.

_Sixth House:_

_Daniel Casey - Necromancer, Master Warden of the Library_

_Kelli Lin - Cavalier, Hand of the Library_

_Notes: Daniel is one of the most boring people I've ever met, but he's not an idiot I guess. Never thought he had ambitions for Master Warden. Possible that Kelli pushed him into it. Kelli is a skilled cavalier, deadly in single combat, and a challenge to fight outside the rules of a duel, but not suited to a battlefield or a brawl._

Shaw had worried that she was going to have to tiptoe around to avoid the Sixth House pair, but it turned out to be unnecessary. Whatever they were up to, they were being almost as secretive and sneaky about it as Root was. She didn't catch sight of them at all until the day after she humiliated the Fifth House cavalier.

None of the other cavaliers had returned to the training room on the far side of the pool room when she checked late that morning, but the skeletons were still hard at work scrubbing out the filthy pool pit. It looked like they'd made a good amount of progress, which wasn't too surprising considering they wouldn't need to stop and rest the way a human would.

Shaw crouched down near the edge of the pool to inspect the skeletons. While reanimated bones were definitely not her specialty, spending three years in the Ninth House had given her an eye for quality. Root's skeletons were flawless, both in construction and movement, but even they lacked something compared to the white-robed First House skeletons. It was hard to say just what it was that made these skeletons superior, but there was something about the way they moved that looked so natural. Whoever had made them had been unbelievably talented. Teacher maybe? Or one of the original Lyctors? How were they being maintained?

The sound of approaching footsteps pulled her to her feet. There was nowhere to hide near the pool or in the practice room which left only the shadowy alcove near the stairs. Not a great hiding place, but better than nothing. She quickly crossed the open space, pushed through the doors, and ducked behind the tapestry hanging in the darkest corner under the stairs.

The footsteps came closer: two people from the sound of it, descending the stairs.

"It doesn't make any sense," a man's voice said. "We must be missing something."

"If we're missing something then the others must be as well," a woman responded. "None of the other necromancers are in your league."

Shaw stiffened, recognizing the voice.

"It wouldn't do to underestimate Second House," the man said. "Or Eighth, though I'm not certain of his motives. And Ninth is an unknown still."

Shaw peered around the edge of the tapestry as the speakers passed by. The Sixth House necromancer and cavalier looked exactly the same as how they had in her brief glimpse of them the day they'd all arrived. They even had on identical grey robes.

"I don't think we need to worry about Ninth House," Kelli said. "We should be able…" They passed through the doors to the pool and out of hearing range, leaving Shaw to wonder what exactly it was Kelli thought they should be able to do with Ninth House. Regardless of whether or not Root was a better necromancer than Daniel, Root would eat him alive, and Shaw knew she could beat Kelli in a fight.

Since there was no other way out of the pool room, they'd be coming back right by Shaw, and, from that direction, she'd be way more obvious. But there'd been something poking her in the small of the back since she'd hidden, and, sure enough, when she ran her hand over it, it felt like a door handle. If someone had hung a tapestry over a door in a dark corner, then they must really have wanted to hide it.

The handle turned under her hand and she stepped through into a dark hallway. Lights on the ceiling above her lit up one at a time down the hall away from her, illuminating a tiled hall with a massive door at the end. Shaw quietly closed the door to the pool room behind herself and went to examine her find. The new door was made of dark stone, set between two pillars, and extremely locked. A glance through the keyhole revealed nothing but darkness, and the carvings around and above the door were unfamiliar to her. Another dead end, but why would someone have hidden a door that was already tightly locked?

Since there was nothing she could do to open it (and she suspected that this door was definitely covered by Teacher's 'no opening locked doors without permission' rule), she went back to the first door and opened it a tiny crack. The sound of footsteps climbing the stairs told her that she'd come back just in time for Sixth House's departure.

She left her hiding spot after the footsteps faded away and carefully rearranged the tapestry in front of the door. No reason to let anyone else know it was there. Nothing looked different in the pool room or the practice room which meant Sixth House had been down here to snoop. Maybe they'd heard about the skeleton pool cleaning party or the sparring yesterday and come to investigate. It sounded like they'd been busy trying to stay ahead of the others. Maybe wherever they'd been hiding was where Root had been as well. After all, Daniel had listed Root on his list of necromancers to keep an eye on.

The omissions from his list were almost more interesting. Third and Fifth houses both had formidable necromancers, but their reputation didn't come from their necromancy. The Fourth House necromancer was still an unknown to Shaw, and she hoped she'd be able to keep it that way. And as for Seventh House….

_Seventh House:_

_Alicia Corwin - Necromancer, Duchess of Rhodes_

_Martine Rousseau - Cavalier, Knight of Rhodes_

_Notes: ???? No one seems to know jack shit about them. Corwin has whatever genetic cancer it is that Seventh House likes to breed in their necromancers. Dying slowly is supposed to make them extra powerful or some shit. Corwin mostly looks tired. The cavalier looks like a feral weasel. Possible she's gone stir-crazy caring for an invalid._

"Oh yes, it's very tragic indeed," Teacher said with relish. "But then Seventh House has always embraced death in a way that's unique even among necromancers."

Shaw couldn't form an answer around the chunk of bread she'd shoved in her mouth, but Teacher was more than capable of continuing to ramble without being prompted. Unfortunately his rambling rarely yielded useful information and Shaw now knew entirely too much about the exact recipe used to make the very bland sauce last night's fish had been served in. But today when he'd invited himself to sit with her while she ate breakfast, she'd tried a new approach. Instead of asking him where the others were or for more details on Lyctors, she'd simply commented on how the Seventh House necromancer seemed a little under the weather.

"Cancer, you know," Teacher continued. "Terrible, but oh what an amazing source of necromantic power it provides as it kills its host."

Shaw swallowed her mouthful so she could ask, "What type of cancer?"

"Blood cancer, I believe. It's what the necromancers of Seventh have always had, all the way back to...well…." Teacher's smile slipped for a minute and he gazed solemnly into the distance over her shoulder.

Shaw made an interested noise around her bread and tried to look fascinated. Eventually, Teacher came back from whatever trip his brain had gone on.

"We weren't sure whether Seventh House would make it at all, considering Duchess Corwin's fragile state, but they seem to have persevered." Teacher waved that aside. "But enough about Seventh House. Tell me about yourself, Shaw the Ninth. You're one of the most mysterious guests we have."

Shaw almost choked on her food. She rose from the table so quickly she almost knocked over the bench. "Sorry, but I need to leave. Immediately." She paused only long enough to shove some extra bread in her pockets which seemed like the thing to do under the circumstances.

Shaw didn't have too many chances to observe the dying Duchess and her cavalier, though they were surprisingly easier to find than many of the others. The Seventh House necromancer must have taken a fancy to the sea air, because she kept turning up on the wide terraces of Canaan House, tucked under trellises overgrown with vines. Shaw had to admit that there was something quintessentially Seventh House about wasting away on a balcony surrounded by dying flowers and looking out over the sea.

Corwin usually sat with her back to the building so she could see the view, but her cavalier always lurked nearby, ready to prevent anyone from causing trouble.

The first time Shaw had found them, she'd tried to start a conservation in an effort to escape the oppressive weight of boredom threatening to engulf her. It hadn't gone particularly well. The cavalier, Rousseau, had appeared out of nowhere when Shaw approached Corwin and looked at her expectantly with a nasty little smile.

"And what does the Ninth House want with the Seventh?"

"Nothing in particular. Just being friendly." Nosy would have been the more honest word choice perhaps.

Rousseau looked her up and down, gaze resting for a fraction of a second on her rapier and knife. Her own rapier hung at her hip, and while Shaw couldn't see any other weapon at her waist, there was a slight bulge in her sleeve around her left wrist--a chain off-hand most likely.

Martine sneered slightly at the sunglasses that Shaw had taken to wearing most days (there was just too much damn sunlight here) and rested one hand on her rapier in a threatening way that failed to impress Shaw. It was really hard to get a read on Martine as a fighter, especially with the voluminous green robes she was still wearing. Her stance suggested she was ready for any sudden actions on Shaw's part though.

"Let her pass, Martine." Corwin's voice was a harsh rasp.

Shaw approached the Duchess cautiously, very aware of the cavalier behind her. Alicia Corwin's skin had a deathlike pallor about it and her eyes were foggy. She only spared half a glance at Shaw before her gaze returned to the ocean that stretched out to the horizon.

"What does Ninth House wish from me?" she asked in a strained whisper.

"Nothing in particular. Just paying my respects." Her main reason for wanting to talk to Corwin had been that Martine hadn't wanted her to. Now that she was here, she didn't know what to say.

"Why are you here?" Corwin asked. Her breath rattled out and then she sucked in air with a high-pitched wheeze.

"She means why are you here in Canaan House," Martine added. She inched around to stand behind Corwin's chair with one hand resting on the back.

"My necromancer wants to be a Lyctor. Same as you, right?"

"That's your necromancer," Martine objected. "Why are _you_ here?"

Shaw looked between the two of them, but Corwin made no move to reproach her cavalier for her tone. Maybe she didn't have enough energy, or maybe she was just chill with her cavalier being a dick.

"Enjoying the sea air," was the best answer she could come up with. Out here, the salty smell of the ocean was strong and the sound of the waves crashing into the cliffs below was a distant roar.

"Why are you here?" she asked, wondering if maybe she'd been wrong.

"I came here to die," Corwin said. Her bony hands tightened on the arms of her chair. "We all did."

"Uh, I sure didn't." Shaw looked up at Martine in confusion.

"Duchess Corwin needs to rest now," Martine said firmly. "Perhaps another day."

Shaw left the two of them alone on the crumbling balcony, staring out to sea.

Another day hadn't come yet, but Shaw didn't mind at all. As far as she was concerned another day could wait until long after the Seventh House necromancer and her cavalier were dead and gone.

_Eighth House:_

_John Greer - Necromancer, Master Templar of the White Glass_

_Jeremy Lambert - Cavalier, Templar of the White Glass_

_Notes: Creepy asshole and stupid asshole. Jeremy is more likely to stab himself by accident than anyone else on purpose. Greer might be bad news._

After her initial encounter with Eighth House, Shaw stayed clear of them. Some part of her longed to kick the crap out of the sniveling cavalier, but the thought of Greer's creepy face made it less appealing. However, she did manage to successfully stalk them one day, hoping to find out what they were up to. Which was how she found the hatch.

The hatch was a massive door set in the floor of a room just down a short staircase from a huge room that looked like it must have once been a lobby. It wasn't in the easiest location to find, but the dust on the stairs and in the halls around it had multiple sets of footprints in it. This place was popular.

She'd caught a glimpse of white robes going down the stairs and followed at a safe distance to find the hatch with Eighth House standing over it. The shadows of the staircase helped hide her while Lambert unlocked the hatch and pulled the heavy door open. She couldn't see clearly but from the way they descended there must have been a ladder below. When Lambert had almost disappeared into the hole, he pulled the heavy door shut behind him and Shaw heard the click of the lock being secured.

So much for following them, but she suspected she'd just discovered where everyone had been hiding all the time. She camped out in a dark corner of the room and waited for ages, bored out of her fucking mind, until the hatch opened again. Over the course of the next two hours she saw Sixth House, Eighth House, Second House, and her very own Ninth House necromancer emerge. Jackpot.

Now she just needed a way to get down there herself.

_Ninth House:_

_Root - Necromancer, Reverend Daughter of Drearburh_

_Sameen Shaw - Cavalier, Theoretically_

_Notes: What the fuck is Root actually after? How does this tie in to her situation back on the Ninth? And why drag me here and then ignore me? She can only be elusive for so long._

Shaw came up with a plan the next day, a plan to finally get Root to read her in on everything going on. It was a really solid plan, practically infallible, but the one thing it didn't account for was Root failing to come back to her room the next night. Shaw stayed awake half the night, but Root never returned, and in the morning her bed remained empty and unslept in. At first Shaw thought maybe Root had caught on to her finding out about the hatch and all the plotting, but when Root didn't show up the next night either, Shaw decided she needed a new plan. She buckled on her weapons and set out into the dark castle to find her missing necromancer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll include another 'chapter' after this when I post that just lists who's who in each house and some other stuff as a reference.


	4. Nine Houses Guide

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a quick ref for who's in what house and what each house is about. The equivalent of this is in the front of the novel and there's so many characters that it seemed appropriate. All info about the house specialties and colors, etc was taken from [here](https://www.tor.com/2019/09/20/find-your-necromancy-family-among-the-houses-of-gideon-the-ninth/).

**Second House:**

Joss Carter - Necromancer, Ranked Captain of the Cohort

Dani Silva - Cavalier, Ranked First Lieutenant of the Cohort

House Colors: Red primary, white secondary

Necromantic Specialty: Absorption of life energy from the living. A Second necromancer can drain thalergy from any living source, then use it to bolster the strength of their soldiers.

**Third House:**

Zoe Morgan - Necromancer, Crown Princess of Ida

Tomas Koroa - Cavalier, Knight of Ida

House Colors: Gold primary, purple secondary

Necromantic Specialty: Cannibalization of thanergy from corpses, no matter how old. They surpass other houses’ limits for drawing power from dead bodies.

**Fourth House:**

Kara Stanton - Necromancer, Baroness of Tisis

John Reese - Cavalier, Knight of Tisis

House Colors: Navy primary, white secondary

Necromantic Specialty **:** Exciting thanergy into a state of fission, thereby turning corpses into bombs.

**Fifth House:**

Control - Necromancer, Lady of Koniortos Court

Schiffman - Cavalier, Seneschal of Koniortos Court

House Colors: Brown primary, gold secondary

Necromantic Specialty: Fifth necromancers are the foremost spirit magicians, unparalleled when it comes to speaking to the dead.

**Sixth House:**

Daniel Casey - Necromancer, Master Warden of the Library

Kelli Lin - Cavalier, Hand of the Library

House Colors: Grey, silver secondary

Necromantic Specialty: Psychometry, by which they can read the history that echoes of life and death leave on objects.

**Seventh House:**

Alicia Corwin - Necromancer, Duchess of Rhodes

Martine Rousseau - Cavalier, Knight of Rhodes

House Colors: Pale green, silver secondary

Necromantic Specialty: The preservation of the corpse and the stasis of soul, prolonging the space between life and death and between death and decay.

**Eighth House:**

John Greer - Necromancer, Master Templar of the White Glass

Jeremy Lambert - Cavalier, Templar of the White Glass

House Colors: White primary, silver secondary

Necromantic Specialty: Soul siphoning. An Eighth necromancer can wedge a soul into the breach between life and the afterlife, and use it as a conduit for spirit magic.

**Ninth House:**

Root - Necromancer, Reverend Daughter of Drearburh

Sameen Shaw - Cavalier, Theoretically

House Colors: Black, and only black.

Necromantic Specialty: The raising and crafting of skeletons. Though a staple of all necromancy, none master the art of skeletons like a Ninth necromancer.


	5. The Facility

There was only one obvious place to look, and Shaw found herself taking the trip back to the room with the hatch in the floor. The huge lobby with its paneled floors and broken elevators was dark and empty and the faint sound of voices echoed through the vast space. Shaw crept down the stairs and hunkered down in the shadowy corners of the stairwell.

There were two people in the middle of the room next to the closed hatch door, and even from her hiding spot she couldn't hear all of what they were saying since they spoke in loud whispers.

"...bad idea, we don't know…" one of them hissed.

"We can't just...what if she…"

Shaw strained to hear more, but both figures lowered their voices further. By this time her eyes had adjusted to the gloom enough to recognize the two people by their outlines and the cut of their robes. Great. Just about the last two people she'd hoped to run into here. If she hadn't had the inconvenience of a missing necromancer and a locked hatch door that she didn't have a key for, she would have slipped away and come back later, but right now she was shit out of options.

She stood up from the shadows and walked down the last few stairs, no longer trying to hide her approach. The two figures spun to face her, one drawing a rapier. Shaw held up her hands.

"You know, I've been itching for a good fight for days now, but that's not what I'm here for."

"Shaw." The taller of the two figures stepped forwards and Shaw saw the face of Daniel Casey under the hood of the grey robe. Behind him, Kelli didn't sheath her sword, but she did lower it.

"Hey Daniel, long time no see. Looks like you've moved up in the world."

"A lot's happened since you...since you left," Daniel finished lamely. "It's good to see you again, though. I was starting to think we'd imagined you the first day."

"No such luck."

Kelli stepped up next to Daniel. "We were surprised you didn't stop by our rooms to say hello to the members of your own house."

"Were you really?" Shaw asked dryly.

There was an awkward silence.

"Listen, as fun as this reunion is," Shaw said with only trace amounts of sarcasm, "I'm here for a reason. I need to get in there." She nodded at the hatch. "And unfortunately I find myself short a key."

"You're looking for the Ninth House necromancer," Daniel said. "Why are you here with her, serving as her cavalier?"

"I hope you haven't deserted Sixth House for the tomb nuns," Kelli added.

"Kelli--" Daniel rebuked, but Shaw spoke over him.

"No, I haven't deserted the house that sent me to the furthest, darkest corner of the galaxy for something that was barely even my fault and then never once bothered to contact me again. How could I desert a house I'd been kicked out of?" She didn't typically get angry, but there was a thin thread of something like adrenaline-driven resentment running through her veins.

"Then why are you here representing Ninth House?" Kelli asked, ignoring Daniel's distressed hand gestures.

"Because Ninth House asked for my help, which is more than Sixth House ever did." Shaw clenched her jaw. Root was missing. This wasn't helping anything. "I haven't done anything that you lot would classify as disloyal, okay? Now can you open the damn hatch or do we have to have a diplomatic incident?"

"I don't think--" Kelli started saying.

Daniel held out his hand. "The key."

He and Kelli had a very heated silent conversation that involved various exasperated facial expressions before Kelli gave in and slapped a key ring into Daniel's hand. There were two keys on it that Shaw saw and Daniel inserted the larger of the two into the keyhole on the hatch and turned it.

"There's blood down there," Daniel said as he stepped back. "Fresh blood. I think it belongs to your necromancer but I'm not--"

Shaw elbowed past him and heaved the heavy door open. It weighed more than she'd expected and her shoulders creaked in protest, but the hatch opened revealing a crude metal ladder set in the wall leading down into darkness. Shaw sat down on the edge of the hole and got her feet on a ladder rung.

"Wait." Daniel took half a step towards her. "Have you been down there before? It's a lot of area to cover if you're searching blind."

"I'll manage," Shaw said, and lowered herself onto the ladder.

The ladder went down a very long way into the pitch black and when Shaw's feet finally touched the ground she was surprised to hear metal under her boots. Lights clicked on from the ceiling illuminating a metal grille lined hallway that looked more like it belonged on a space station than under a ruined castle. Pipes lined the halls and cold air blew in from vents. Whatever the hell this place was, it wasn't what she'd expected.

There was a clattering on the ladder behind her and then Daniel climbed down into view. He dusted himself off at the bottom as Kelli followed him down.

"I know what area she was in last," Daniel said by way of explanation. "I'll take you there."

"Why?" Shaw asked suspiciously.

"Partly because I'm the Master Warden of Sixth House and you're still part of my house, but mostly because I'm not going to leave someone down here to bleed to death in the hopes of making my own life easier."

Shaw tended to think of Daniel as boring--and he was--but she also recalled he was inherently honest and depressingly nice, traits that normally would have made her dismiss him but that currently worked in her favor. "Okay, show me."

Kelli didn't look at all pleased by the situation, but she didn't object either.

"What is this place?" Shaw asked as she followed Daniel down the cold, metal hallway. Lights switched on above them as they walked and clicked off behind them after they passed.

"It dates back to before the resurrection, I believe," Daniel said, "though I'm still trying to verify that. The readings are very odd down here."

Every child knew the story of how humanity had been wiped out in a catastrophe only to be resurrected by their all-powerful and benevolent Emperor who had then gone on to form the nine houses. That had been ten thousand years ago, though, which would make this place impossibly old. Old like the Emperor and his Lyctors.

"Okay, so it's old as balls, but what is it for?"

"I wish I knew," Daniel said with enough frustration in his voice that Shaw believed him.

The hallway opened out into a larger junction room with more halls branching off of it. There was a sign next to each hallway: Laboratory One-Three, Mortuary, Sanitiser, and others.

"She went down this way," Daniel said, pointing at the hallway labelled Sanitiser. "That's where the blood is, too."

"I can take it from here then." She pushed past Daniel towards the hall.

Behind her, she heard Daniel sigh. "I can understand why you might be hesitant to trust us given your past history with the leadership of Sixth House, but I assure you that I'm only trying to help."

"Then hurry up." Shaw didn't wait to see if he followed before she set off down the hall.

The hallway wasn't long, but about halfway down it the blood started. It was all over the floor, mostly dried, and it was smeared along one wall as well as if someone had dragged their hand along it. The door at the end of the hall had blood on it as well, as did the touchpad that opened the door. The room on the other side of the door was full of high-walled cubicles stretching the length of it. The metal tables and sprinklers overhead marked this as a lab of some sort, Shaw noted in passing as she continued to follow the trail of blood. It soon became clear where she was headed. A wall of skeletons stood rigidly at attention around one cubicle and all turned towards her in unison as she approached. It was eerie and menacing. Shaw grabbed a metal stool off the ground.

From behind her Daniel said, "I'm not sure that's a good id--"

Shaw smashed the closest skeletons without hesitation. The remaining ones continued to stare at her, but didn't attack. Shaw shoved past them into the cubicle and was greeted by a truly bizarre sight. It was like someone had made a large mound out of skeleton arms, all connected at the top by their shoulders. The arms were fit together tightly, each bent so that the overall pattern was almost spiral-like. It might have been pretty if it hadn't been so macabre.

"That's incredible." Daniel was in the next cubicle over, peering over the wall. The skeletons all turned to look at him and one took a step forward. Kelli pulled Daniel back and got in front of him, rapier raised.

"They don't seem to react to you," Daniel said over Kelli's shoulder. "Maybe she instructed them not to harm you."

"Why would she do that?" Shaw asked as she examined the weird skeleton arm construct. The trail of blood led here which meant there could only be one thing under it. She didn't use the stool this time and instead wrapped the edge of her robe around one fist and punched a hole in the mound. It hurt like hell, but the bones snapped at the elbow joints and fell away. She ripped more away from the hole she'd made until she could see inside.

Root was curled up in a ball on the floor, blood on her hands and dried under her nose. Shaw dropped to her knees next to her and pulled her free of the bones enough that she could examine her. There were no wounds that Shaw could find, which wasn't that surprising. Using thanergenic energy for necromancy often caused necromancers to sweat blood and get nose bleeds and all sorts of other gross things. The amount of blood on her hands was more unusual, but not unheard of. Still, she must have been doing something pretty intense down here even though there was no sign of what that might have been.

Shaw examined her fully. Shallow breathing, but steady. Far too pale. Dark circles under her eyes visible where her face paint had smeared and chipped away.

"Is she okay?" Daniel called from the other side of the room.

"Yeah, I think she passed out from some combo of dehydration, exhaustion, and over-exertion," Shaw called back. The blood loss probably hadn't helped either. "I'm going to have to carry her out of here."

She got to her feet and heaved Root over her shoulder. The skeletons didn't react at all as Shaw carried her past them and back to the door where the other two waited.

"You're sure it's safe to move her?" Daniel asked nervously.

"Doubt you remember this, but I did study medicine and stuff back at Sixth House." Necromancers could heal so many things with their powers that they rarely bothered with too much medical knowledge, but Shaw had never liked relying on that.

"I'd forgotten," Daniel said.

Kelli stayed silent and Shaw wondered if that meant she'd forgotten as well.

"I'm getting her back to her room." Shaw opened the door with her free hand. "You two planning to stay down here?"

"No, we were done for the night. We'd just been debating if...well…"

If they'd been going to leave Root down here by herself. That must have been the topic of the debate Shaw had partially overheard.

"Let's go then."

She led the way back to the ladder and eyed the metal rungs with distaste. There wasn't going to be any easy way to do this. She wasn't sure exactly how she managed the climb which was awkward and slow-going with Root over her shoulder, but she reached the top and pushed the hatch door open. At the top she paused to wait for the other two to join her. Kelli emerged first and they exchanged a brief glance, the first one in years. She thought Kelli looked embarrassed and a little guilty though why she had no idea.

Daniel clambered out of the hatch and shut and locked the door behind them.

"This time I'm really leaving on my own," Shaw said. "But, uh, thanks."

Daniel nodded solemnly. "Of course. We're no allies of Ninth House, but we don't have to be enemies. You should tell her that when she wakes up."

"Sure, though no guarantee she'll listen." Shaw shrugged Root into a more comfortable position. "Later."

The walk back to their rooms felt like it took a year with her burden. Root wasn't heavy, but her dead weight was still a lot to carry that far. Since it was the middle of the night, the halls were blessedly free of any of the others. Or almost.

"Ah, I see you've found your necromancer," Teacher said as she passed him outside the dining hall. "Quite a handful, isn't she?"

Shaw didn't bother to respond and left him chuckling to himself in the dark hallway. The rest of her trip back was uneventful and soon she was kicking open the door to their rooms.

She dumped Root on the bed and stood there looking at her. What was she supposed to do now? Root was definitely dehydrated but she couldn't drink anything while she was asleep and she looked like she was really out cold. Shaw decided on a solution to fix both problems at once and dumped a glass of cold water from the bathroom on Root's face.

Root woke up instantly, spluttering and indignant. Shaw left her swearing and making vague threats and went to refill the glass. When she got back she held it up, threateningly.

"You can drink this or I can pour it on you. Makes no difference to me."

Root had tried to wipe her face off while Shaw had been gone and succeeded in smearing her face paint into a grey goop across her face. She glared at Shaw from under it as she reached for the glass.

"I don't know what the fuck you're doing down there, but whatever it is you still need to drink water occasionally, you know."

Root drained the glass and slumped back onto the bed. "I was fine. I just needed some rest."

"You were passed out in a bone tent suffering from dehydration, exhaustion, and blood loss. How is that fine?"

Root waved this away. "I need to stay ahead of the others. Why were you down there anyway?"

Shaw resisted the urge to throttle her, but it was a close thing. "Because you disappeared for two days. I'm your cavalier, Root. Even if it's not the real thing, I'm supposed to protect you. I signed a form and everything."

Root looked at her appraisingly. "Yes, you did, didn't you," she murmured. "And you take that very seriously now?"

Shaw sat down in a chair next to the bed, hard enough that it slid back a few inches. "You think I didn't before? I've been telling you that I should back you up since we got here." Sure she'd also planned to avoid Root, but no need to bring that up. "Well, now you almost died in a basement so you don't get a choice anymore. Either you fill me in or I'll tie you up while you're passed out until you do."

"Why Shaw, I had no idea you were into that sort of thing." Root's smile might have been suggestive but it was hard to tell under the paint.

" _And_ I'll remove every single bone from this room first." Otherwise Root would just summon more annoying skeletons to free herself. Though removing all of them would be hard since there seemed to be more and more bones lining the walls every day, like morbid wallpaper.

Root's defeated sigh let Shaw know she'd won. "Fine, but let me clean up first."

Root wasn't at all steady on her feet--a reminder for both of them that one glass of water wasn't going to fix her--and Shaw was up and grabbing her arm to steady her without thinking it through. She helped Root totter over to the bathroom and waited at a polite distance outside the closed door until she reemerged a few minutes later. Root had scrubbed her face clean and Shaw was again startled by the difference, especially now when it showed just how pale and drawn she was from her basement adventure.

She shook off Shaw's attempts to help her back to bed and weaved her way over to her wardrobe. Shaw had about half a second's warning when she started pulling her robes off over her head. Shaw spun around and faced the opposite wall until all the rustling of cloth stopped. When she turned back, Root was wearing a simple black shift and hauling herself back into the large bed.

"How did you get down into the facility?" Root asked as she arranged herself on the pillows. "You don't have a key."

Shaw reclaimed her chair. "How do you know I don't?" There was no need to mention the fact that she _did_ have a key now since the keyring in Root's pocket had been jabbing her in the shoulder the whole walk back and she'd decided to reclaim it.

"Because Teacher only gives out one per house and I have one."

That was one mystery solved. "Teacher is handing out keys? Why?"

"Because I asked him for permission to open the hatch on the first full day we were here. After examining all the doors in this place it seemed the obvious first area to explore."

"All the doors? On the first day? There's like a million of them."

"Closer to seven hundred, but it did take me awhile, yes. And you haven't answered my question."

Shaw kicked the side of the bed. "I just had to rescue you and haul you up a ladder and across the whole castle which you still haven't said thank you for, by the way. It's my turn to ask questions."

Root propped herself up on her elbows. (Shaw tried (and failed) not to notice how her dressing gown had slipped off one shoulder). "Thank you, Sameen."

She sounded sincere and Shaw regretted pushing for the thank you.

"The facility?" she prompted.

"I don't know exactly what it's for, unfortunately. If I did it would make my job here easier."

Root fell back on the pillows. She pulled a piece of bone out from some pocket in her shift that Shaw hadn't realized existed (how did she not roll over and stab herself on bone shards in her sleep?) and two skeletal arms sprouted from it and rearranged her sheets for her.

"It was used for necromantic research of some sort and there are...experiments down there that I think we're meant to finish. Tests of a sort." She fumbled in her pocket again and pulled out the notebook she always seemed to be scribbling in. "Here."

It was clear she expected Shaw to climb up on the bed next to her to look at it. Shaw stayed frozen in her seat.

"I don't bite, Shaw." Root smiled. "Well, that's not strictly true, but you're safe for tonight."

Shaw kicked off her shoes before climbing on the bed. She sat next to Root at the top, a respectful distance between them. Root scooted over until her head was almost in Shaw's lap and held up her notebook in front of them before Shaw could protest. "Here's a map I made of all the doors in the building."

It was a rough sketch of Canaan house with doors marked off with X's and neatly numbered. "The ones in red are locked. I've only found six of those besides the hatch. I suspect the keys for them are somewhere down in the facility, no doubt rewards for passing the tests."

Shaw studied the map carefully. "You're missing one." She pointed at the crude representation of the pool room. "There's one here, behind a tapestry. Easy to miss."

Root's eyes widened. "I knew there had to be more. Show me."

"You're not going anywhere tonight." Though Shaw was ready to get out of there. Some of Root's hair was up against her arm and it was soft and shiny and Shaw definitely needed to be elsewhere.

"Tomorrow then."

"Sure, but you're taking me with you into the facility as well."

"Shaw, that's--"

"Non-negotiable." Shaw glared down at her. "I'm your goddamn cavalier, Root. It's my entire job to keep you safe, even when you're being an idiot. _Especially_ when you're being an idiot. I'm coming with you."

She wasn't sure where the words came from since she'd only been vaguely concerned for Root's well-being before this, but now that it was apparent that her help was clearly needed--that Root needed a cavalier--she felt a new sense of purpose clicking into place like a puzzle piece. It had been so damn long since she'd had something to commit herself to.

Root blew out an exasperated breath and snapped the notebook shut. "Fine, but you do as I say down there. Teacher said...it's not safe down there and I didn't want…. Just promise you'll do as I say."

"Safety precautions, sure. Beyond that, we'll see."

"Shaw--"

"I'm not going to blindly take orders from you. Not my thing." Back in the Cohort she'd taken plenty of orders, but this wasn't the same by a long shot.

"You really are a terrible cavalier," Root said with a rueful smile.

"Hey, you're the one who beat up your actual cavalier just to drag me along. Why did you do that anyway?"

"You're better company than Lionel." Root looked up at her. "And now I really need you to tell me who let you into the facility."

Shaw thought about refusing, but there wasn't any reason not to tell her. "Sixth House was lurking around the entrance so I asked them to let me in. Daniel actually insisted on helping me find you."

Root finally moved away from her and back to her pillow. Something in her face that had been more open than Shaw had ever seen had vanished, like a door swinging shut. "Of course he did. He wanted to spy on my work."

"I don't think so. Daniel is kind of dull, but he's about as devious as a brick."

"Or maybe that's part of his act."

"I knew him back on Sixth and it's not. He's not a bad person." Neither was Kelli even if she'd given her the cold shoulder.

"I suppose you think I should share everything I've learned with them now." Root's voice had gotten much colder.

"No, and you're being really fucking dumb about this." She enjoyed the look of shock on Root's face. "I'm not in some secret alliance with Daniel. I couldn't give a shit if he becomes a Lyctor. Might be fun to see him fail, actually." Daniel was nice, but he was the Master Warden now and she was still technically banished to Ninth House so her charitable feelings were extremely limited.

Root's face softened again and Shaw quickly scooted out of the bed to escape. She grabbed the empty water glass and used it as an excuse to get even further away from Root as she refilled it in the bathroom. When she brought it back out, Root's eyes had drifted shut.

"Drink this before you sleep," Shaw said. She placed the glass down within reach and backed away to a safe distance. "You're probably still really dehydrated." She was slightly shocked when Root actually sat up and took the glass without complaint.

"What exactly were you trying to do down in the facility that ended up with you getting bloody hands?" Shaw asked as Root drained the glass.

"It's hard to describe, partly because I have no clue what it is or what I'm supposed to do with it." The irritation was obvious in Root's voice.

"Really? You can't give me anything at all to go on?"

Root's fingers tapped out a pattern on the empty glass as she regarded Shaw. At first Shaw thought that she wasn't going to speak again, but then she looked back down at the glass with a slight frown and spoke.

"When Teacher gave me the key to the facility, he gave me a warning as well. He said that what had been done down there was the sum of all necromantic transgressions. That going down there would likely lead to my death and that it was the most haunted place in the Empire. I got the impression that not only were there things down there that could violently murder me, but also others that could consume my soul."

"Well, that's fucking pleasant." Shaw felt slightly more cheerful now. Killing things that were trying to violently murder her was one of her favorite pastimes. But also: "He told you all that and you _still_ didn't take me with you?"

"Becoming a Lyctor is my goal, Shaw. Not yours. No reason for you to walk into a death trap for nothing."

Shaw could have argued the point further, but it would have gotten them right back into the uncomfortable territory she'd been trying to avoid. "It didn't seem that scary when I was down there. Creepy in the way any dark, abandoned place would be, but no murder ghosts or soul-eating skeletons."

"There's no monsters roaming the halls, but there's…. Something down there destroyed over a hundred and sixty of the skeletal constructs I made."

"What was it?" Shaw asked, trying not to be impressed by the sheer quantity of skeletons Root had made. Raising skeletons might be the specialty of Ninth House, but she'd come to understand that Root was some kind of mad genius with them, beyond what was standard for the house.

"That really is the question, isn't it." Root placed her glass on a table near the bed. "You should sleep now as well, Sam. We're going to be up early tomorrow."

"You need more than a few hours sleep," Shaw protested. "I don't want to have to carry you up that ladder again."

"Then we'd better both go to sleep as soon as possible." Root flopped back on her pillows. "Goodnight, Shaw."

Shaw retreated to her room with only a brusque: "Goodnight." She got ready to sleep as quickly as she could and pointedly didn't glance at Root's bed on her way back from the bathroom.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow she'd finally get some answers.


	6. Imaging and Response

It was the second time Shaw was rudely awoken by someone trying to steal from her, and this time the thief had moved her knife out of reach ahead of time. This left her with no option other than flipping said thief over and pinning them to the floor with a hand around their throat.

Root's eyes widened and her lips parted as she stared up at Shaw. She should have looked scared or at least worried, but that was...definitely not what she looked like. Her pulse was racing under Shaw's fingers and her cheeks were flushed pink. Shaw's half-asleep brain informed her that she was currently straddling a woman who she couldn't fully deny was attractive and that she might want to stop staring at her if she wanted to retain any semblance of control of the situation.

She fractionally loosened her grip on Root's throat. "Looking for something?"

Root wrapped one long-fingered hand around Shaw's wrist, but didn't try to pull her away and Shaw remembered how she'd leaned into the knife blade last time.

"You stole my key ring," Root said, her voice unsteady. "I was only retrieving it."

"Yeah? How'd that work out for you?"

"Oh I'd say it's going pretty well, even if I didn't find the key ring." Root fluttered her eyelashes.

Shaw released her with a disgusted glare and climbed off of her. "Figured you might try and run off without me so I made damn sure you couldn't find it."

"I wasn't going to leave you behind," Root protested. She sat up, rubbing her neck. "But I did want it back."

"Well, tough. Teacher gave the key rings to the cavaliers, so it's mine. You want to get through any locked doors then you need to take me with you."

Root was still wearing the shift she'd slept in and hadn't put on her face paint yet so it was at least possible she was telling the truth about not running off and leaving Shaw behind. The flimsy black shift had been left in a disarray in the struggle which gave Shaw a view of more of Root's legs and shoulders than she was used to seeing. Shaw fixed her eyes resolutely on the far wall and tried not to think about what it had felt like to have Root pinned under her, her eyes wild and her chest heaving. She didn't succeed.

"In that case," Root said, fingers playing with the edge of her shift in a way that _had_ to be deliberate, "you'd better get ready to go. No time to lose."

Shaw had mostly regained her composure by the time they were both ready to go. The reappearance of Root's horrible skull paint definitely helped her remember that she was absolutely _not_ attracted to Root even slightly.

"Ready?" Root asked as Shaw secured her rapier and knife.

"Yeah, but we're getting something to eat before we go into the murder-ghost pit."

"Shaw--"

"I've got the key and I say we're getting breakfast."

There was no one else in the dining room (not too surprising since the sun wasn't up yet, though necromancers were all nuts so that wasn't necessarily a deterrent) which worked for Shaw since she wasn't sure she was ready to be seen in public with Root yet. She was halfway through the soup-like broth that was a breakfast staple here when she noticed Root had barely touched hers. Her bread was nearly gone, but the soup bowl was still almost full.

"I know it's not great, but it's better than the slop you have back home," Shaw said.

Root's expression was sour. "It's not that. It's just richer than what I'm used to. And it tastes too much."

"Oh. Huh." The soup was pretty bland compared to the food Shaw had grown up with, but it was still spiced far more than anything at Ninth House had been.

"Here." She ripped what was left of her bread in two and gave Root the smaller piece. "And I'll finish your soup if you don't want it."

The smile Root gave her was smaller and more hesitant than her usual grins and that made it far more alarming. Shaw bent over her soup bowl to avoid it.

Even with Root rushing her, there was enough time for Shaw to put away enough food that she was in a decent mood and tolerated Root hurrying her to the hatch door.

"Now, before we go down there," Root said in a stern, authoritative tone.

Shaw tried to maneuver past her towards the door. "Yeah, yeah, look out for murder ghosts. I got it."

Root stepped in front of her again. "One does not simply walk into the murder ghost pit, Sameen. Now pay attention."

"Fine. What?"

"Two things." Root held up two, slender fingers. "One: don't touch anything you don't have to. Everything down there is ancient and has a habit of crumbling to dust on contact."

"No touching. Got it." She didn't mind rules that made sense.

Root put down one finger. "Two: while you're welcome to fulfill all your cavalierly duties, do _not_ interfere with my research."

"What if your research ends you up in a situation that requires my, uh, cavalierly duties? Isn't the whole point of a cavalier to keep their necromancer from being an idiot?"

"Shaw--"

"I'll stay out of your way unless I think you're in danger. And that includes being a danger to yourself. Take it or leave it." She jangled the keys in one hand.

Root's lips pressed into a thin line of displeasure, but the look quickly gave way to a disarming smile that Shaw didn't believe the sincerity of for even a second.

"Fine. Now open the hatch."

Shaw took immense satisfaction in using the heavy key to open the hatch door herself. The long climb down slightly dampened her enthusiasm, as did the cold at the bottom, but she was eager enough to see what was really down here that it didn't completely ruin her mood.

"Back to Sanitiser?" she asked when Root joined her in the metal hallway.

"No." Root didn't offer any further information before heading down the hall back to the junction Shaw had been at the previous day. Today, no longer driven by the urgency she'd felt the day before, Shaw looked around a little more and spotted a white board on one wall. It must have been well-used at one point since it still held ghostly half-erased scrawls, almost all of which were illegible.

In one corner of the board there were the remains of a diagram of sorts. It was split into quadrants each of which had lines of varying heights next to each other. The first quadrant featured only a single vertical line, the second a short and long vertical line parallel to each other, and so on. She was at a loss as to what sort of experiment or theory it might represent, but something about it filled her with a deep sense of annoyance.

The only clear writing on the board were the words 'It is finished!' written across the bottom in giant letters.

"What was finished?" she asked out loud. Root didn't respond and Shaw thought back on Teacher's words describing what had happened down here. The sum of all necromantic transgressions. What the hell was this place really?

Root didn't take them to the Sanitiser but instead to a door labelled Laboratory Two. Past the door they moved through old laboratory-ish rooms until they came to another door whose sign said Transference/Winnowing. Shaw eyed the word 'winnowing' warily.

Inside was a long room. Along one wall was another room visible through a window that ran the full length of it. That room was empty except for an alarming number of bones on the floor and vents low on all the walls. The door to the room was shut and had a sign on it that said RESPONSE. A second sign above the door said OCCUPIED and was lit with a faint green light.

"Doesn't look occupied to me," Shaw said. "Those all your dead skeletons? Uh, deader skeletons. You know what I mean."

"Over here." Root was all business as she motioned Shaw into another small room on the wall opposite the first one. This one was called IMAGING and the little window on the door was smeared with blood.

"Someone had a party here."

"Yes, me," Root said. She hit the button to open the door and entered.

This room was barely bigger than a closet and the only interesting thing in it was a pedestal in the middle topped with a dark, reflective piece of glass. Root marched directly over to the pedestal and placed her hand on the glass. There was a loud _thunk_ as the door slammed shut and the glass folded over Root's hand.

"Is that supposed to happen?" Shaw asked.

"Yes, but look out the window."

Through the blood-smeared window Shaw could see that the door to Response had opened.

"It'll shut again when I send in a construct or two," Root explained, "but if I take my hand off of here it resets. And if I leave my hand on, well, something in there violently destroys all my constructs within seconds. The problem is that I can't see it without taking my hand off." She looked over her shoulder at Shaw. "But you can."

She took her hand away and the door to Imaging opened even as the door to Response shut. Shaw went out and looked through the window again at the room full of broken bones. There was no sign of anything in there that could take down a skeleton, especially not one as robust as the ones Root was capable of making.

"I need you to wait here and tell me what you see," Root instructed.

"Sure, though why didn't you just ask me days ago? Seems obvious you need a second person."

"This is a test," Root said. "A test of a necromancer, therefore there must be a way to do it alone."

"Bullshit. Teacher said that becoming a Lyctor required necromancers and cavaliers to work together. Looks like we found out why."

Root looked sullen at the suggestion but she didn't argue. "Just stand here and observe. I'll send in a skeleton as bait." She pulled a small bone out of her pocket and tossed it on the floor. More bones erupted out of it until a fully formed human skeleton stood next to them. It wasn't quite as uncannily alert as the First House skeletons, but it looked better than the ones Shaw had seen her make previously. Impressive, since those had already been top notch.

Root retreated back into Imaging and, after a second, the door slammed shut behind her and the door to Response opened. The skeleton entered, marching to its presumed doom, and the door shut behind it. The light of the Occupied sign turned red. Shaw hovered near the glass window. Time to see what sort of monsters were really down here.

A thick, dusty fog crawled out of the vents, partially hiding the room from view, and within a second the most fucked up thing Shaw had seen in her life burst through the cloud. It was definitely a skeleton construct, but like nothing she'd ever seen before: tall enough it had to hunch down to fit in the room, its bones misshapen and thick. Where its hands should have been were long, sharp lengths of bone, and its hollow eye sockets glowed an eerie green in the fog. Its excessive number of legs put Shaw in mind of a spider, but it moved like a force of nature and crushed the waiting skeleton into a pulp with a single blow from its freaky arms.

The enormous monster skeleton raised its head to look right at Shaw through the glass and she felt her pulse racing in anticipation. Could the window hold back something that strong? Her hand was on her rapier as she took a step back to give herself room to fight.

And then the red light above the door turned green again and the construct melted away and vanished back into the ducts like water. The fog dissipated after it leaving the room exactly as it had been except with the addition of a sad new pile of bones from the sacrificial skeleton.

"Did you see it?" Root asked from behind her.

"I saw...I don't know what the fuck I saw, but it wasn't fucking around." She did her best to describe the thing that had materialized out of nowhere. Root pulled her notebook out of a pocket of her robe and scribbled furiously in it, a frown on her face.

"Pretty sure we both know the next step in this test," Shaw said after she finished her description.

Root's pen hesitated mid-scrawl and then resumed with a vengeance. "I'm going to send in more this time. I need you to tell me how it reacts to multiple enemies. It must have a weakness, something I can use against it. What are they trying to test with this?"

"Root…."

Root ignored her and raised another three skeletons. "Watch them, Shaw." She retreated back into Imaging and the door shut behind her.

There was very little difference in the results: the three skeletons tried to avoid the construct as best they could, but the hulking thing cut them down in seconds. Shaw watched, noting the way it moved, the attacks it made. This thing would be a real challenge, far beyond the aging fighters at Ninth House or even the other cavaliers.

Root had a nose bleed when she came out again and there were hints of blood sweat on her forehead. She chewed her lip while she listened to Shaw's recounting.

"Maybe I need to overwhelm it. I think I can manage enough for that."

"Think it's obvious I'm supposed to fight it," Shaw said.

Root looked past her into the room with the growing pile of bones. "If it destroyed all my constructs so easily then it would be beyond reckless to send you in. It's not worth the risk."

"Well, rest in peace to your skeletons, but I'm different. I can take it."

"No," Root said firmly. "Not an option."

Shaw fought down her growing sense of exasperation as she watched the next small army of skeletons get beaten to a pulp.

"You could send a whole army in there and you'd get the same result," she said when Root emerged again. Root had more blood on her though not even close to enough to be alarming for a necromancer yet.

"I'm missing something," Root insisted. "This is a test meant to be passed by a necromancer, and I'm the most skilled necromancer in the galaxy."

Shaw didn't comment on that since for all she knew it might be true. She still wanted to roll her eyes though.

"Nothing else to do but try again," Root said and vanished back into Imaging before Shaw could protest.

Shaw looked at the skeleton set to go in this time. It stared straight ahead, mindlessly. She pulled her robe off over her head and discarded it to one side, leaving herself in a shirt and pants. Then she walked over and politely shoved it to one side. "Trust me, bone dude, you want to sit this one out."

When the door to Response hissed open, Shaw stepped through, rapier and knife drawn.

"Shaw?" Root's voice boomed over the speakers, loud enough to be unpleasant. "What are you doing?"

"This is a test for both of us and you damn well know it. So I'll take care of the cavalier part and you figure out what the hell you're supposed to do as the necromancer."

The room must have been soundproofed since she'd never heard a thing from it before, but now she heard the rush of the mist from the vents. She had a front row seat as the construct materialized out of nowhere, bony limbs expanding.

She'd seen how fast it was several times now, but it still was unnerving how quickly it moved. She ducked under the first swipe of its sword-like arms and sliced at the knee of one of its legs. Her rapier cut through cleanly, and the construct staggered for a second, but even as Shaw watched, a new lower limb sprouted from the part still attached to the main body.

"Well, shit."

She rolled under it, narrowly avoiding getting trampled by its legs, and came up in a crouch on the far side. It rounded on her faster than she'd expected and this time she blocked its attack rather than dodging. There was less weight behind the blow than she'd anticipated, but her rapier still wasn't suited for this type of fight. She almost wished she had her other knife on her, but she could admit that having to get even closer in a fight with this thing would have sucked.

"Can you...hold still...a second?" Root's voice over the speakers was strained.

"No, I fucking cannot hold still right now, Root!" Shaw threw herself up the side and sliced through one of the deadly arms. The arm regrew instantly, but she kept at it, hacking limbs off and staying clear of its attacks.

"You're making this more difficult!" Root sounded desperate.

"What the hell are you doing in there?" Shaw yelled back.

A slight waver appeared at the edge of her vision, as if the smoke had made her eyes water. She scrubbed at her eyes with the back of her knife hand while circling the construct. Maybe if she--

"Clear your mind, Shaw."

"Clear your own damn mind, mine is busy." She lunged at the back of the thing, trying to sever its spine and its goddamn arm bent backwards and stabbed at her right through its own goddamn ribcage. She felt a sting in her shoulder and leapt back. The weird distortion in her vision had gotten more pronounced, impossible to ignore now. As it crept across her entire field of view, the construct looked different. Like there were strange points of light on it that she hadn't seen before. She gathered herself, ready for its next attack when it suddenly froze and fell to dust the way she'd seen it do before. The door opened as the fog was sucked back into the vents.

She rushed out the door before it could shut again and waited impatiently for Root to emerge from Imaging. Root swept out of Imaging and pulled the shirt off of Shaw's left shoulder before Shaw could stop her. Her shoulder had a very minor cut on it, enough to bleed, but not enough to cause her problems.

"Do you mind?" she said, brushing Root's hand away and fixing her shirt. "And what the hell were you doing? Did you make my eyesight all fucked up?"

Root was thoroughly covered in blood sweat now and the skin under her nose was crusted with dried blood. There was even blood around her eyes. "Living things aren't my specialty. I'm used to skeletons, you know. The dead are simple, and the living are almost impossible. Too noisy."

Realization dawned on Shaw. "Were you in my head?"

"I was trying to see it through your eyes, but you take up so much space in your head."

"Because it's _my_ head! Which you are not welcome in, for the record."

Root waved this aside. "It's not like I can read your thoughts, Shaw. I'm just borrowing your senses. I think...yes, maybe. I think with your eyes I might be able to see how the construct was made, the theorems holding it together, and that would give us the edge we need."

"For the record, I am extremely not okay with this." But fighting it had been the most fun she'd had in ages and the whole setup was like a puzzle, a puzzle she now very much wanted to solve. Maybe it was some latent Sixth House trait which drove her curiosity to outweigh her dislike of the process because she found herself saying, "Do you really think it'll work?"

"I need to work out some ideas first, but yes, I think so." Root smiled triumphantly from under the blood. "But for now I think I need a nap." And she collapsed.

Shaw half-managed to catch her and ease her the rest of the way to the ground. Did all necromancers pass out this often? No wonder they needed cavaliers. She stuffed her robe under Root's head. "I'm not carrying you up the ladder again, so you get to nap here."

Root was out cold and didn't respond. Shaw sighed and sat down on the floor nearby.

* * *

They got back to discover an envelope had been shoved under the door to their rooms. Shaw snatched it up before Root could and tore it open.

"We've been formally invited to a fancy dinner hosted by Fifth House tonight," she said as she squinted at the overly loopy and ornate lettering. "Something something promoting harmony between the houses. Sounds like Fifth House meddling to me."

Root flopped onto the bed face first without responding.

"We're not going, right?" Shaw asked. "Could be a trap and it'll definitely be boring." Her eyes kept straying back to the part about dinner and dessert being served. She didn't think there was much in the way of fancy ingredients here, but it wouldn't be like Fifth House to be unimpressive so they must have something planned.

Root said something but it was muffled by the fact her face was buried in the blankets.

"I'm going to take that as a no."

Root turned her head. "We're going. All the other houses will. It will be the perfect time to spy on their progress, which is undoubtedly the real reason behind this." She held out a hand for the invitation.

"What progress? Does being a Lyctor give you glowing runes all over your body or something?" She handed Root the invitation.

"Keys, Shaw. Keys to the locked doors. There's a reason Teacher mentioned them." Root scanned the invitation and then dropped it on the bed. "We have hours before we have to be there at least. I'm going to sleep for a bit and then do a few calculations to help us sort out that construct. We'll do that directly after dinner, of course."

Shaw thought about protesting, but she'd been the one bored to tears until today. Hell, she was already dreading the next few hours of having nothing to do. The fight had left her wired, ready for more, and watching Root sleep sounded dull as shit.

"I'm going to head out, see if I can find some of the other cavaliers." A duel would be less exciting than the fight she'd just been in, but it would be better than nothing.

"Just be back here in time to get ready for dinner."

Shaw didn't like the ominous sound of 'get ready for dinner' which suggested putting on far too many robes would be necessary. That was a fight they could have later, though. She looked one last time at Root (who was stretched out across the bed still fully dressed) and then headed out to find something exciting to do.

* * *

Shaw was halfway to the pool room when she heard her name called. She turned, dreading the inevitable confrontation.

It was no surprise to see Kelli coming down the hall behind her since she'd recognized her voice, but she hadn't been expecting to see Tomas as well. He hung back though, out of hearing range, and looked nervous. Highly suspicious.

"I wanted to apologize for yesterday," Kelli said when she got close. "I had no way of knowing if you'd blame us for what happened to you, and, well, maybe you understand the necessity of prioritizing your necromancer's well-being above all else now."

Shaw wasn't sure she did, but after the last two days she wasn't sure she didn't either. "Sure," she said, figuring it was a safe answer.

"You're still part of Sixth House and I shouldn't have treated you like you weren't."

Shaw had even less of an idea of how she felt about that. "It's not a big deal."

Kelli's face split into a smile. "I'm glad. You know, I really missed you while you were gone."

This was a completely unacceptable topic that Shaw had no intention of allowing. "Cool, so do you think Daniel can spare you long enough for some friendly sparring?" She tapped the hilt of her rapier. Behind Kelli, Tomas was still hovering awkwardly. She didn't know what he was here for, but the more the merrier if she got to fight.

"Well, I had something slightly friendlier in mind actually," Kelli said. "I mean, if you're interested."

Shaw had been hoping for a fight, but…. The thing was there'd been absolutely no one on Ninth House she would have considered sleeping with, so it had been a long three years and Kelli _was_ tremendously hot even if she had been kind of a dick and even if this was some ploy to get information out of Shaw and….

"Is that why Tomas is here?" she asked, her mind reassessing the risk/reward ratio of the whole proposal.

"I thought we all could have some fun while our necromancers are busy," Kelli said. "Think of it as a peace offering. And an apology."

This was definitely the type of apology Shaw had no problem accepting. And it wasn't like she didn't have some time to kill now with Root taking a nap. Would Root care? It wasn't like it was any of her business who Shaw fucked as long as she didn't breach the agreement she'd made. This was recreation.

Kelli's small smile promised a good time, and, when she looked up, Tomas favored her with the charming, roguish grin she always remembered him having.

"Whose room?" she asked.

* * *

Shaw rolled out of the large bed and went to find her pants. Behind her she heard the covers stirring.

"You always did run off right after," Kelli said. "No time to even stay and chat with old friends?"

Shaw looked back over her shoulder pointedly at where Tomas was thoroughly passed out on the other side of the bed. He'd been worn out enough that he'd be lucky if he made it to dinner tonight.

"One old friend then," Kelli corrected. She'd sat up in bed and the covers had fallen to her waist. Shaw paused halfway through pulling her pants on to appreciate the view. Between topless Kelli and Tomas lying naked on his stomach on the far side of the bed there was plenty of view to appreciate.

"I need to get back. There's some fancy dinner thing tonight that Fifth House is doing." She fastened her belt. She could feel the hard lump of the keyring with its single key in the little hidden pocket she'd sewn into her pants.

"We'll be there as well," Kelli said, "but there's still plenty of time."

Shaw pulled her shirt on over her head. "What were you planning to talk about? The weather on Ninth House? The new types of forms that Sixth House rolled out this year?"

"I thought maybe we could swap notes about this place. After all, it's in both our interests for Sixth House to succeed here."

And there was the catch Shaw had been waiting for. "Not interested. Also goes against the agreement I made with Ninth House." She wasn't sure if that was strictly true, but it sounded like a good excuse.

"Sameen--"

Shaw stiffened.

"--if you go back to Sixth House after this then it wouldn't matter what agreements you'd made with Ninth. What could they do about it?"

"I don't break promises." Also not strictly true.

"Daniel is the Master Warden now and we both agree that what happened was unfair. He's going to pull some strings and get this all sorted out and you can come back. You can even rejoin the Cohort if that's what you want. With a special recommendation from the Master Warden. I can talk Daniel into that."

Shaw didn't think anything showed on her face, but Kelli must have realized how this all sounded because she hurried to add, "This isn't reliant on you sharing information, Shaw. I wouldn't do that. All I'm saying is you can come back after this. Sixth House is still your home."

Shaw wrapped her scratchy, black robes around herself and turned back to look at Kelli. She looked earnest enough, and somehow that made it worse.

"How long has Daniel been the Master Warden of Sixth House for now?" Shaw asked quietly.

The earnest look on Kelli's face wavered for a fraction of a second, but it was enough.

"That's what I thought," Shaw said. She'd already known, of course. She'd asked Reese when the new Master Warden had taken over Sixth House. A year and a half. All that time and they'd never even contacted her and now suddenly they were _so_ eager to have her back.

She pulled the stupid sunglasses Root had given her out of her pocket and jammed them on her face. "I'll see you around, Kelli."

Kelli didn't try to stop her when she left.

The hall outside was cooler than the Sixth House rooms had been, and Shaw sighed in relief at her escape. And then she groaned because a new problem was coming down the hall towards her.

"You might not want to go in there yet unless you're into Tomas," she told Daniel as he approached. His entire face turned red much to her satisfaction. "And you can skip the part where you try to convince me that you're so eager to have me back at Sixth House. Kelli already fed me that line."

She tried to push past him, but he caught her arm. She looked down pointedly at his hand and he released her as if he'd been burnt and took a step back.

"Shaw, listen, when I took over it was after the previous Master Warden had been removed from his position for corruption. A lot of things came out when that happened, enough that no one really believes the story he told about what happened with Wilson and Cole."

"And yet I didn't get an invite home."

"No, you didn't, and I'm sorry for that. There were so many things the previous Warden had done that needed to be fixed, things that affected hundreds of people. You got...lost in the shuffle." Daniel looked genuinely contrite. "I know that's of no comfort to you, but it is the truth, and I do plan to fix your situation as soon as we're off this planet, regardless of whether or not you help us here."

It was everything Shaw wanted offered to her for free and yet all she felt was a distant anger. "Okay," she said. "I need to go back now."

He nodded as if he understood, which she really doubted he did. "Of course, but the offer stands."

Shaw shrugged it off. "Catch you later, Daniel."

He called after her once, but didn't try to follow and she hurried back to the Ninth House quarters. Root was awake and sitting up in bed with her notebook when she entered. It hadn't occurred to her to tidy her appearance up on the walk back, and she wondered if Root would be able to tell what she'd been up to by how disheveled she looked.

"You look like you had some fun," Root said as she looked her over. She only sounded amused to Shaw's relief. The last thing she needed was more drama today.

"Private cavalier business," Shaw said by way of explanation.

"Is that what they call it now? Well, I hope you saved some energy for tonight."

It took Shaw half a second to realize that Root was talking about fighting the skeleton construct in the basement and not about...something else.

"I'm always ready for a fight." She pulled her robes off as she headed for her room. "I'm going to take a bath and then we can discuss whatever dumbass thing you think I'm going to wear to this dinner."

"Shaw?" Root called after her.

She hesitated in the doorway. "What?"

"Thank you for not snitching on me to Sixth House."

Shaw turned back, eyes narrowing. "Were you spying on me?"

"Certainly not. I was asleep. But I knew they'd try something, and I know you wouldn't break your word. So, thank you."

"Yeah, well, I signed that form," Shaw said lamely.

Root only smiled at that and shooed her out of the room.


	7. The Dinner Party

"How do I look?"

Shaw tried her best to spot the difference between the current robes Root was wearing compared to the normal robes she wore. Both sets were black and looked like they belonged in a crypt, but this set was maybe cut slightly differently and had some frilly lace around the edges. Root had also applied fresh black nail polish to her fingernails and taken extra time getting her horrible face paint absolutely perfect. The earring--bone studs dotted up the length of each ear, each with a different dark-colored gem in it--Shaw had never seen before. They must be an heirloom or a gift since Ninth House didn't have the money to waste on jewels.

She looked as fancy as Ninth House could get, but there was an air about her that didn't quite match. Something about the way she fidgeted constantly with her jewelry and clothes and kept checking her paint in the mirror. Not vanity, Shaw thought, but nerves. Root had probably never been to a party before.

She searched for something reassuring to say.

"You look like an extra necrotic tomb mummy."

Root patted her on the cheek. "You really do know how to make a girl feel appreciated, sweetie."

Shaw got up off the edge of Root's bed and went to gather up the pile of robes she'd discarded earlier. "Do you have something horrible for me to wear as well or am I just wearing these?"

"I didn't bring any fancy robes for you, Sam, and, as you've pointed out, you don't answer to me, so you're free to wear whatever you have."

"Oh." Shaw hated herself a little for the tiny bit of disappointment she felt. She'd kind of been looking forward to seeing what fancy Ninth House cavalier garb looked like, and maybe she'd been thinking about walking into this fancy dinner looking like the best Ninth House had to offer in front of Daniel and Kelli. Oh well. Though, there was one thing she could do….

"You have any extra of that creepy paint?"

She had to sit on the edge of the bed again so Root could hover in front of her and dab the thick, greasy paint all over her face. It was uncomfortable, not only because of the cold, slimy feel of the paint, but also because Root's face was inches from hers and staring way too intently as she worked.

"I never thought you'd let me do this," Root said as she drew a line along Shaw's cheekbone. "You were very adamant before we came here."

"All the other houses are going to dress to impress tonight. Figured I didn't want to be the reason Ninth House fell short. Though you know, if you'd just brought Fusco along like you were supposed to, you wouldn't have this problem." Fusco probably wouldn't have done too well against the skeleton monster though.

"Lionel Fusco in the finest robes Ninth House has ever made still wouldn't be half as impressive as you in the most tattered rags," Root said firmly. She smiled right in Shaw's face and then tapped her on the nose with one finger. "That Sixth House cavalier must have really gotten under your skin."

"Kelli? Not really. It wasn't like she tried to bribe me or anything like that. I still don't know how she talked Tomas into it though." She hadn't been aware they knew each other.

Root's eyebrows rose in obvious surprise. "Tomas as well? My, but you were busy."

Root's reaction hadn't looked faked which confirmed she hadn't actually been spying. Shaw had wondered if the addition of yet another House into the mix would irritate her, but Root just looked amused.

"Yeah, though I don't think he knew about the part where Kelli planned to try and get me to share. The way I see it, I got what I wanted out of the afternoon and Kelli and Daniel feel guilty now," she said. "Guess that means I came out on top."

A shit-eating grin split Root's face. "I didn't think you were the type to kiss and tell, Shaw."

"That's not what--"

"No, please, continue. I'm all ears."

"Fuck off."

Root's grin grew wider. "Shut your eyes."

"Why?" Shaw asked suspiciously.

"Eyelids. It'll only take a second."

Shaw shot her a warning look (though she wasn't sure what she was warning her not to do) and cautiously shut her eyes. She was braced for it, but she still jerked a tiny bit when something cold touched her eyelid. Root's touch was light as she spread paint over Shaw's left eyelid first and then her right. Not being able to see Root while her fingers touched her face made Shaw tense up. Blind like this, Root could send a spike of bone right through her eye into her brain before she could even react. She didn't think she _actually_ would, but she couldn't relax either.

Root's fingers vanished for a long second and then there was a tentative touch right at the corner of her mouth. Shaw's eyes jerked open.

"I missed a spot," Root said, innocently.

"Are we almost done?"

"Hold still or I'll smear it."

Root ran her finger along Shaw's jaw one final time and then stepped back to admire her work. "You look perfect." She passed Shaw a small hand mirror.

Shaw stared at her face in the glass. The white, grey, and black paint had been applied expertly, but it was too weird seeing one of the many painted skulls of Ninth House on her own face. There was black paint around each of her eyes to look like eye sockets, and black on her whole nose as well. Vertical slashes had been painted over her lips (she tried not to remember how Root's fingers had felt on her lips) like massive skull teeth, and a single black line ran along each of her cheekbones. The rest was filled in with white and grey paint. She'd definitely never looked less like a member of Sixth House.

"I look deranged."

Root tidied away the box of paint. "There's still time to wash it off if you prefer."

"No, it's fine. Just weird." Her face felt heavy and stiff under the paint.

"May I ask why the sudden change of heart? If it wasn't about Sixth House trying to entice you with...well, I'm guessing it had to do with you returning there. Then what?"

Shaw stared at her own almost-unrecognizable face in the mirror. She didn't really want to talk about this, but she got why Root was asking. "They offered me everything I wanted, without asking for any price. I could go back to Sixth and rejoin the Cohort and get a promotion even." She wasn't quite sure why the whole thing didn't appeal to her.

"And you wouldn't even need the fake identity you've been so carefully crafting over the years." At Shaw's incredulous look, Root added, condescendingly, "I know everything that goes on in Castle Drearburh, Shaw. So, yes, I knew about your forged identity and how you planned to vanish at the end of this trip."

"Would you have stopped me?"

"No, though I thought about it--can't imagine how dull things will be there now--but I won't try to keep you there against your will." Root turned away to stow the makeup box in her wardrobe. "And also, once I'm a Lyctor I suspect I'll have other things to keep me entertained."

"Even though I was stuck on Ninth House, I think I had more freedom there than I ever had before," Shaw said as the answer came to her. "I mean the place is a crumbling death trap, Root, no offense, but if I go back to Sixth with Daniel's permission it'll be...I don't think he'd hold that over me, but it'd be like I was getting dragged around without any control. Again. Hell, running off and enlisting as a nobody sounds better."

Root watched her closely, her face more serious than it had been all evening. "Being stuck in a situation beyond your control isn't enjoyable."

"Do you...I mean, ruling Ninth House is your duty, but would you rather be doing something else?" She was aware that there were a lot of other factors there, ones that Root didn't know she knew about. Maybe now that all this was out in the open she could confess what she knew, but not yet. Not tonight.

"That," Root said, "is extremely complicated and we're going to be late to dinner if we don't leave now."

That had been, Shaw thought as she followed Root through the halls of Canaan house, the most open conversation she'd had with anyone in years. Probably since Cole had died. The Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House was just about the last person she'd expected to have a heart to heart with, but the anger she'd felt earlier had retreated a little.

* * *

The dinner took place in the same dining room that all the meals had been served in, but the room had been redecorated when they arrived. Fresh garlands of leaves and vines had been strung on the walls. The tables had been pushed together to form one long table which was covered with a stiff, white tablecloth. Places had been set at the table and little cards were at each. Assigned seating. Gross.

At the head of the table sat the Lady of Koniortos Court, resplendent in finely made brown and gold robes. She was deep in conversation with the Second House necromancer, Carter, and Dani stood at attention behind her necromancer. There was no sign of the Fifth House cavalier anywhere.

There were a few other Houses there already, and Teacher and a few of the priests as well. It looked like socializing was going to be unavoidable, which made this Shaw's worst nightmare.

"We need to pay our respects to the host," Root murmured to her, one hand resting on her upper arm.

"Really?"

"Afraid so."

Control looked up from her conversation as they approached.

"Ninth House thanks Fifth House for their gracious invitation," Root said with cold formality. She was every inch the icy Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House again, all hints of her earlier warmth and mischief gone. The total transformation was impressive, but, since she had to keep up this chilly persona most of the time in the course of her formal duties, she must have had a lot of practice.

"We are grateful for your presence here, Ninth," Control replied with equal rigidness. The whole thing made Shaw want to flip the table or do something else to disrupt the ridiculous monotone exchange.

"I don't think we've had the chance to officially meet yet," Carter said. She rose from her seat and gave the slightest formal head bow to Root. "Captain Joss Carter of Second House, and this is my cavalier, First Lieutenant Dani Silva."

"The blessings of the Emperor be upon the Second," Root intoned gravely. "I am Root, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House, and this is my cavalier Shaw the Ninth."

The title still sounded wrong, but she minded it a lot less from Root.

"The Ninth?" Carter asked. She held up a hand before Root could respond. "It's none of my business. I'd been hoping to speak with you at some point, Ninth. Perhaps if you have a few moments tonight."

"Of course," Root said, voice as hollow as an empty mausoleum.

"I was also interested in a word," Control cut in.

Root was unexpectedly popular, though with the way she'd been hiding away the others must have been curious about her.

"Ah, here's Eighth House," Control said, looking past them.

Shaw turned to watch the new threat and his pompous lap dog of a cavalier enter in their shining white robes. John Greer wore a delicately made shirt of chain mail over his robes that was probably useless for protection, but was very pretty.

"If you'll excuse us," Root said from behind her and brushed past Shaw and away from the group. Shaw followed at her heels, keeping a close eye on Eighth as they retreated to a corner. Lambert turned towards them to smile his smug little grin. She chose to refrain from flipping him off.

She nudged Root with her elbow. "Eighth definitely has it in for you."

"Hmm, yes, though they're not the ones I'm worried about."

"Who then?"

"Second is the best necromancer after me, but Second House isn't known for their research skills. Sixth House on the other hand…."

Shaw rolled her eyes. "I'm worried about people threatening you, not about your necromancer grudge war."

"As any good cavalier would be," Root said fondly, her icy mask vanishing for a second. "Would you rather I have called you Shaw the Sixth?"

The out-of-nowhere question blindsided Shaw for a second. "Uh, no, I don't think that would make sense."

"I could always combine them. You can be Shaw the sixty-nin--"

"No."

Root looked disappointed. "Shaw the Ninth it is then."

They both fell silent as two people approached them. The Fourth House necromancer and her cavalier wore fine blue and white robes that were cut with ease of movement in mind. Fourth House were the Emperor's vanguard, the first troops on the ground, and they always stood ready.

"Well, you certainly are something," Kara Stanton said, looking Root over. "I'd thought the stories of the tomb nuns were exaggerated, but I guess not."

"I'd thought that the tales of Fourth House all dying nobly in battle before their twentieth birthday were exaggerated," Root said cooly, "and it seems I was correct."

Kara stiffened though Reese, standing at her shoulder, maybe smiled a tiny bit. He met Shaw's eyes as their necromancers stared at each other hostilely and gave the smallest shrug as if to say 'Necromancers. What can you do?'. Shaw tilted her head in acknowledgment, because yeah, you couldn't do much.

"It was so brave of you to come here with only a second-hand cavalier," Kara said.

Shaw thought about punching her, but decided she didn't want to actually fight Reese for real. He was the closest thing she had to a friend here other than whatever strange thing it was she had with Root. Okay, and maybe Tomas. How had she acquired friends? Clearly she'd made some poor decisions.

"It was almost as brave as coming here as a second-rate necromancer," Root retorted.

Shaw and Reese exchanged another look and then simultaneous steered their necromancers away from the conversation.

"I wish I knew if she'd been down in the facility yet," Root said when Shaw had relocated them over next to the dry fountain. "I know Sixth has, and Eighth, and I think I saw the Seventh House cavalier lurking once but I'm not positive."

"She's good at lurking." The Seventh had not shown up yet and Shaw wondered if health reasons would keep them in their rooms tonight.

"I wish I knew what she was really after," Root said distantly. "I can't see what she has to gain here."

"Achieving Lyctorhood for her necromancer? Lyctors are immortal, right? It'd save her life."

Root shook her head but didn't seem inclined to discuss it further as her attention had been stolen by the latest arrivals. Third House looked glorious in their silken gold robes. Zoe Morgan surveyed the room like a predator in her natural habitat, and behind her Tomas looked especially regal with his purple-lined half-cape swept back over one shoulder. Shaw watched them drift over to present themselves to Control.

The last few guests trickled in over the next ten minutes and Shaw noted all the Houses were accounted for, even Seventh who she'd expected to be absent. Alicia Corwin looked pale and drawn as usual, but Shaw saw her exchanging words with Carter which was more socializing than she'd seen her do before. Martine Rousseau hovered behind her, watching everyone like a hawk.

The Fifth House cavalier finally made an appearance, sweeping in from the kitchen carrying a giant vat of something steaming hot. She'd put on an apron over her robes and looked far more domestic than Shaw had thought her capable of.

Everyone wandered over to the table and milled around trying to find their seat. The assigned seating had split up the necromancers and cavaliers Shaw noted with irritation. Her seat was a few down from the end of the table where Control presided, placed between Reese and Corwin and across from Zoe. It could have been much worse as Root had John Greer across from her and was sandwiched between Kelli and Tomas, which was just...unfortunate in every way.

Skeleton servants clicked around the table filling everyone's bowls with rice and fish in a broth of some kind and their glasses with wine. Shaw almost started in before she noticed everyone politely waiting. At the head of the table, Control rose from her seat and cleared her throat.

"We've all been here for several weeks now, engrossed in our own investigations of this ancient building and overlooking this rare opportunity for the leaders and heirs of the houses to mingle and share our perspectives." The leaders and the heirs all looked like they would rather be lowered into a pit full of spikes, but Control plowed ahead. "To that end, I decided it was time to step in and promote better cooperation and communication between the houses. Please enjoy the evening and take the time to start getting to know your peers. I will be encouraging this strongly in the days to come."

There was dead silence as she sat back down. Shaw stared hungrily at her plate and wondered if she was allowed to eat yet. Control was setting herself up as some kind of authority figure, a move which Shaw fully intended to ignore, but Shaw wouldn't turn down free food over it. Control seemed to be enjoying drawing out the awkward indecisiveness of everyone waiting to eat, right up until Martine picked up her wine glass and sipped it, staring Control dead in the eye as she did.

Control fumed, but the moment was broken and everyone started in on their food. The meal was extremely good, Shaw was delighted to find, much better than the normal meals here. It had been expertly seasoned and cooked to perfection. Schiffman may have been lacking in sword skills, but her culinary prowess got her a drop of respect back.

"So, Shaw," Zoe Morgan said, "That _is_ what you prefer to be called, correct?"

Shaw lamented the loss of the silence that had come with everyone stuffing their faces.

"That's right."

"Tomas has told me so little about you, but I understand you're quite the student of medical science."

Shaw silently thanked Tomas for the lack of disclosing her life to his necromancer. "Yeah," Shaw said without enthusiasm. Medical science wasn't considered the sexiest field of study in a world where a good part of the population could manipulate flesh and bone.

"I've been considering starting up a medical center back home, one aimed at providing care for those who don't have access to necromancy and might otherwise suffer without care."

"That's not a bad idea," Shaw allowed, cautiously. It was an idea she thought more of the houses should get behind. Necromancers tended to see to their own needs rather than the needs of strangers and while there were doctors, there was a lack of organization and regulation. "Will you be governing it, or will it be independent?"

The corner of Zoe's mouth quirked up in a pleased smile. "Medical knowledge and an understanding of politics. I'm impressed."

Shaw took a sip of wine to avoid answering.

"I was thinking of something largely independent, with a board headed up by someone neutral to the internal politics of Third House." Zoe's stare was intent.

"Ah," Shaw said, hoping that her lack of enthusiasm might head off where she thought this was going.

"I hear you're looking for something to do with yourself these days," Zoe continued. "Sitting on your hands at Ninth House is a waste of your obvious potential, as is dying in the Cohort."

"Actually, I've got my hands full at the moment," Shaw said, motioning at the room. She snuck a look at Corwin as she did, but the quiet necromancer wasn't paying any attention.

"Of course," Zoe acknowledged. "I meant after we're done here."

"Won't you all be busy with important Lyctor duties?"

"Perhaps, but I'll still be the Princess of Ida, and as such I'll have duties to attend to."

Shaw spooned up the last mouthful of her food and risked a glance down the table. Root was ignoring her immediate neighbors and instead talking diagonally across the table to Carter. Definitely better than any of the alternatives.

"I think I'll have to see what my necromancer needs before anything else," she said, hoping that the line worked as well as the 'my necromancer needs me' one for escaping conversations.

"Is that so?" Zoe looked thoughtfully over at Root and then back at her. "Well, far be it for me to come between a necromancer and her cavalier."

Shaw scowled at her around her glass. Whatever Zoe thought she'd figured out, she was dead wrong. At least she dropped the conversation then and turned to talk to Kara Stanton instead. Shaw checked in on Reese, but he was transfixed by something Carter was saying. That only left Alicia Corwin.

Shaw didn't do small talk and would have been fine spending the meal in silence, but she didn't think she'd get another chance to talk to the Seventh House necromancer without her cavalier interfering, and she _was_ curious.

"What do you think of Canaan House?" she asked, for lack of a better question.

Corwin turned to look at her as if she'd forgotten she existed.

"It's as good a place as any to die."

Well that was a shitty dinner topic, but since she'd brought it up first….

"You really think you're going to die here? Because of the evil ghosts that supposedly roam the halls?" she asked, knowing full well it wasn't.

"Evil ghosts? No. Something far more tangible than that." Corwin's eyes were cloudy and Shaw wondered if that was related to whatever disease was killing her. Blood cancer, Teacher had said, though there could be all sorts of comorbidities or complications.

"We're all going to die here," Corwin said, and she could have been talking about the weather for all the emotion in her voice. "Every last one of us."

And here Shaw had thought Root had the market on dramatic morbidness covered. "You sound pretty certain."

"Because it's the truth. Excuse me." Corwin turned away to pay attention to the conversation going on next to her.

Well, _that_ had certainly been something. Shaw sipped her wine and tried to listen in to whatever it was that had caught Corwin's attention.

"We've been quite busy cataloguing all the historic data here," Control was saying to Daniel (who was seated between Control and Corwin). "It's a wealth of information on the years just after the resurrection, something that's still scarce."

"Is there that much reliable information here?" Daniel asked. "Beyond what's in the facility, I mean."

"All knowledge is useful, and Fifth House is especially interested in any records of ancient traditions. Though I also hope to discover more of the Lyctors themselves, as individuals."

The conservation was so boring that Shaw almost wished Zoe would talk to her again, but Daniel and even Corwin looked fascinated.

"But what's all this about a facility?" Control asked. "Something you've found?"

Shaw snorted quietly. Big, important Fifth House hadn't found the facility yet. (She chose not to examine the fact she hadn't known about it until quite recently. She wasn't here for the Lyctor shit so it didn't count). She tuned out Daniel describing the hatch and checked back in on Root. Carter had switched to talking to Reese and Root had resorted to talking to Kelli, which made Shaw frown. Hopefully her earlier conversation with Kelli wouldn't come up, though knowing Root she was probably finding the most vicious way possible to get in a subtle jab about it.

"Shaw the Ninth." Schiffman had taken up a seat diagonal to Shaw and they'd been ignoring each other. Until now.

"Yeah?"

Schiffman looked uncomfortable, like her clothes were too tight.

"My apologies for the other day. I underestimated you and let my temper get the best of me. It was unworthy of a cavalier of Fifth House."

Shaw hadn't wanted or expected an apology, but she wasn't going to turn it down. She didn't want Fifth House to cause her trouble someday. "Not a big deal."

Schiffman looked relieved. "Maybe we can have a rematch one day."

"Sure, I'm always down for a fight."

She was saved from further conversation by the skeleton servants reappearing to clear their plates and replace them with dessert: fresh fruit in cream, mildly spiked with some sort of alcohol. Shaw had seen a few fruit trees on the verandas of Canaan House, but she hadn't known if they produced edible fruit. The fruit was delicious and hopefully not poisonous. Root barely touched hers and Shaw wondered if it would be a faux pas to offer to eat hers for her.

Some of the guests rose after dessert was done and started to return to their House pairings, obviously more comfortable that way. Root motioned with her head for Shaw to follow her to the side of the room.

"What were Daniel and Control talking about?" she asked at once.

"Mostly boring shit about Control's mission to dig up every historic document here."

"She isn't even attempting to find out more about the Lyctor trials," Root mused. "Curious."

"Daniel told her about the facility, so she might be after tonight."

Root froze. "We need to go finish the trial. Now."

"What? Why? Didn't you want to talk to some of the other necromancers?"

"Not particularly, and if Control now knows about the facility, she'll be down there soon, possibly even tonight. That's one more competitor. We need to move quickly." Root started for the door leaving Shaw to hurry after her in double time.

"Root, wait, if we're doing this, I have to wash this paint off first. Last thing I need is to sweat it into my eyes while I'm fighting."

Root looked distressed but she agreed and reluctantly let Shaw lead them back to the rooms. She hovered outside the bathroom while Shaw washed her face off, and paced impatiently.

"One more thing." Shaw ducked into her room and retrieved her second knife from her bag. Her knives were plain, but excellently crafted, each as long as her forearm with the slightest of curves.

"The rapier's length is better for this, but the damn blade on that thing feels so flimsy. If it snaps, I need a backup, and I'm better with my knives," she explained at Root's curious look.

"Always thinking ahead," Root said with approval. "Now let's go."

It felt colder in the basement facility at night, though since there were no windows to let in the sun it shouldn't have mattered. It was also creepier having the motion-sensor lights switch on above them and hearing their feet echo loudly on the metal grilles as they returned to Imaging and Response.

"Let's get started," Root said when they got there. "I need you to try and keep your mind as clear as possible without getting yourself killed. You can defend yourself, but there's no reason to attack until I can see through your eyes again and guide you."

"Don't think and don't die. Got it."

Response smelled weird, something Shaw hadn't noticed last time. Old bones and chemicals of some kind. She kicked bones out of the way as she entered, giving herself room to maneuver. When the door slammed shut, she was ready, rapier and knife out.

She'd seen the construct form multiple times now, but it was much more impressive on this side of the glass. It formed as if from nothing and turned towards her with those glowing green eyes.

"Remember, keep your mind blank," Root's voice crackled over the loudspeaker. "And don't fight me."

"Not allowed to fight anyone, huh," Shaw grumbled. What was even the point if she couldn't fight?

The construct exploded into motion and crossed the room faster than something that size should be able to. Shaw took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind as she moved to avoid it. It was goddamned hard; she needed to keep some amount of focus to stay clear.

By the third dodge, she could feel something strange in the back of her mind, and there was a faint aura in her vision like she could see a second set of everything slightly offset from the real thing. It made it even harder to gauge the attacks of the skeleton monster, but she compensated, trying as hard as she could not to fight off the feeling.

"Almost," Root breathed. "I think I've figured it out."

One of the construct's sword-like arms stabbed at Shaw and only narrowly missed her. The end of the arm crunched against the wall and shattered but reformed faster than Shaw could attack. As she backed away to give herself more room, her vision changed again. The doubled vision was no longer a distraction. Everything was vibrant and sharp, like she'd taken some kind of mind-altering drug. And the construct…

The lights she'd seen in it earlier were back and more noticeable than before, and the entire frame of the skeleton looked different, like it had a haze surrounding it. Was this what necromancers saw all the time? Whatever was causing it was rapidly giving her a headache.

"Okay, Shaw, you need to hit it exactly where I tell you to in exactly the right order and not hit it anywhere else."

"Get on with it."

"Right humerus, near the elbow."

Shaw ducked under the next swing and thrust her rapier up into the skeleton's arm, right where one of the glowing lights was. The forearm broke off and fell to the floor, and for a wonder the arm didn't regenerate. So this was some kind of necromantic puzzle, was it? Okay, she could work with this. Good thing she'd had all that medical training and actually knew what all the bones were or they would have been in trouble.

"Left patella next, and nothing else!"

"Yeah, yeah." She rolled under it and instantly regretted it when fragments of bones stabbed her uncomfortably. She came up in a crouch and her rapier flashed out and struck right in the skeleton's knee on its main left leg. The bottom part of the leg crumbled and the construct lurched awkwardly. Shaw grinned. This was more like it.

Root's instructions came quicker now, her voice now confident. It got easier and easier to dance around the skeleton as it lost mobility and the lights went out one by one as Shaw skewered them expertly. She was dimly aware that she must be undoing the necromantic theorems that were holding the monster together.

"Sternum," Root called with an air of finality. "Take it down, Shaw."

"My pleasure." Her blade stabbed through the last light on the skeleton's chest and the whole thing disintegrated. The enormous pelvis hit the ground and crumbled away into dust leaving something behind on the floor.

The presence in Shaw's mind retreated and she staggered half a step as she got her bearings.

"Are you okay?" Root asked, this time in person. Shaw hadn't even noticed the door open, but there was Root, drenched in sweat, but triumphant.

"Peachy."

Root didn't spare her a second glance and instead made a beeline for whatever had come out of the monster skeleton crotch. Shaw joined her in time to see the box open on its own, revealing its prize. A key. One lousy key.

"That's it?"

"This will open one of the locked doors," Root said, holding it reverently. "Whatever's behind the door is the real prize."

"Here," Shaw reached out for it. "Let me add it to the keyring."

Root clutched the key tighter.

"Root."

Very slowly, Root's hands uncurled and she extended her arm up to Shaw, key bare in her palm. Shaw took the key and clipped it to the keyring next to the facility key. Then she offered Root a hand up from the floor.

"Were all the lights on the skeleton connected to theorems or something?" she asked as they left Response.

"You could see those?" Root asked, startled. "That should be impossible."

"This whole place is impossible."

Root frowned to herself. "I thought the challenge here was to learn how the construct was put together, but then why did the cavalier need to fight it and why did I need to see through your eyes?"

"Couldn't tell you."

"Hmm, I feel like I'm still missing something." Root stared at the window to Response as if the answers lay in the broken bones within. Then she shook her head, as if discarding the thought completely, and turned to regard Shaw with a speculative look.

"It was very intense, being inside your mind like that," she said. "I could feel you fighting and I think I've underestimated your abilities. I knew you were uniquely skilled, but that was beyond anything I'd imagined."

Shaw couldn't help but straighten up and roll her shoulders back, enjoying the praise. "I'm way too good a cavalier for your dusty old house."

"I saw you practicing once or twice back home," Root said, ("Way more than that," Shaw muttered under her breath), "and that still didn't compare to this. Your speed is remarkable, to say nothing of your--" Root's eyes flicked down for a second and then back up to meet Shaw's. "--dexterity."

"Yeah, it's...uh, yeah." The part of Shaw's brain in charge of coherent speech had been trampled under the part that was suddenly fascinated by the way Root was staring at her.

Root's eyes were bright and wild under her skull paint, feverish with success, and Shaw knew her own eyes must look the same. Her whole body was singing with energy from the fight still and Root's hungry look suggested another outlet for it. She thought about what Root had felt like pinned under her that morning and how Root's throat had felt when she'd wrapped her hand around it.

She wasn't sure which one of them stepped forwards first, but her hands balled in Root's robes and her lips pressed into Root's in a hard kiss only slightly marred by the taste of paint. She walked Root backwards without slowing down until Root's back hit the wall. Root's hands slipped under her shirt, and traced upwards across her sweaty skin. And, for a moment, all the frustration and chaos of the day faded away, and Shaw's world narrowed down to just the feeling of Root's body pressed against hers accompanied only by the small, pleased sounds that she wasn't sure which of them was making.

Shaw finally pulled back, some ounce of sanity reasserting itself. The room around them was dusty and cold and they were both unpleasantly sweaty for all the wrong reasons.

She fended off Root's attempt to kiss her again. "Not here. Let's go back to the room."

For a second she thought Root would insist and they'd really end up going at it against the wall here in an underground facility that was supposedly full of murderous ghosts, but Root finally relaxed and nodded.

"The room," she agreed. "Now."

Shaw didn't argue with that. She hadn't anticipated things would ever go this far between them, but now that the option was there--now that she'd gotten the briefest taste--it felt inevitable. And if they got back to the room fast enough, maybe she wouldn't have time to think about all the reasons this might be a bad idea.

They left side by side, both glancing at each other covertly (or attempting to). Shaw tried to imagine Root's body free of the black robes and stretched out across the bed. That kiss had been more aggressive than any she'd had with Tomas or Kelli or anyone really. Would everything between them be like that?

She was so far in her own fantasy that it took her a second to notice that Root had halted in her tracks. They'd almost reached the ladder back up to the hatch, but there was something new there: a crumpled heap on the floor. She stepped closer, her mind trying to make sense of the sight before her, and to make sense of what it meant.

There were two bodies there, their limbs a tangled mess that made it hard to sort out which piece belonged to which, but even with that confusion there was no mistaking who they were. The Fifth House necromancer and her cavalier lay dead and utterly ruined at the foot of the ladder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> press F for fifth house


	8. Investigations

This was only the second murder scene Shaw had been to, and it was significantly more boring than the first one. Of course at the first one, she'd been the suspect and had gotten arrested (which had definitely been exciting for everyone involved), while at this one she was just a tired spectator.

Earlier, she'd gotten to see all the Houses in their finest clothes, and now she got to see them (most of them) in their night clothes as they flitted about the crime scene like a bunch of ghoulish detectives. The necromancers each went through their own rituals and methods to try and resurrect or raise the Fifth House dead, and their cavaliers all hovered nearby eyeing each other suspiciously.

Daniel had pulled chalk out of the pocket of his nightgown and scribbled diagrams all over the floor around the corpses that looked very impressive but meant jack shit to Shaw, and Kara Stanton (who oddly enough seemed committed to helping) opened a vein to try and tempt the ghosts back. Alicia Corwin tried to step in to assist at one point, but her cavalier headed her off and pulled her away to a corner of the corridor where they both sat and watched the others in silence.

Root had started her own attempts to contact the freshly slain ghosts before the others had even arrived, but spirit magic had never been her speciality and she was already exhausted from their fight with the construct earlier. She'd still lasted a surprisingly long time, but Shaw had watched her steps grow more wobbly as the seconds ticked by and had only risen from her spot in the corner to catch her when she passed out so she wouldn't concuss herself on the floor. She was starting to get the impression that Root pushing herself to the point of collapse was a fairly regular occurrence for her.

"It doesn't make sense," Root said when she woke up. "There should be _something_ left we can work with. How can there be nothing at all?"

Shaw watched Daniel wave Zoe over and point at one of his diagrams on the floor. Both necromancers studied the chalk marking with dissatisfied expressions.

"Fifth House are spirit experts, right?" Shaw asked without looking away from the crime scene. "Maybe they whisked their own spirits away or something."

"Why would they?" Root asked. "I can't imagine Control gracefully accepting defeat. No, she'd have stuck around and ordered all of us to rain down vengeance on whoever did this."

"Maybe someone here doesn't want that to happen." Shaw had been watching the others for more than just her own amusement. If someone here had killed them….

"Do you suspect someone?"

"Not yet, but earlier at dinner Alicia Corwin told me that all of us were going to die."

They both glanced over at the Seventh House pair. Corwin was sitting on the ground staring at the corpses, and Martine was leaning against the wall next to her, watching everyone.

"Did she say why? Or how?" Root asked.

"No, only that everyone here is going to die. I figured she was just being dramatic."

"For what purpose?"

"Well, she's a necromancer and of Seventh House."

"Point taken." Root stretched her arms over her head. "And now I think it's time for me to rejoin the proceedings."

"You fainted ten minutes ago. You still have blood under your nose."

"I'm feeling much better." She stood up and strode over to where Zoe and Daniel were still discussing whatever it was they were doing now.

Shaw leaned back against the wall and tried not to let her eyes droop shut. Maybe Root was fine (doubtful), but she was ready to go to bed. It had to be only a few hours until dawn at this point. The sound of footsteps on the ladder snapped her back to attention and she was across the floor and standing next to Root at the first glimpse of a white robe.

The Eighth House necromancer followed his cavalier down and they both surveyed the scene with distaste.

"It seems all of you have failed," Greer said. "I see we have no choice but to do this for you." He stepped closer to the corpses and rolled up his sleeves. "Lambert, if you will?"

Lambert came to stand in front of him and for once there was no smug look on his face. He looked a little paler than usual and definitely apprehensive. However he knelt before Greer without complaint. Greer placed a hand on his shoulder and shut his eyes.

At first it seemed like nothing was happening, and then Lambert flinched and almost fell. His pale face lost all remaining color even as Greer started to glow brightly.

"What the fuck?" someone asked and Shaw realized she'd been the one to say it.

"Soul siphoning," Root said as she watched. "He's using his cavalier's soul to pry open a crack between the world of the living and the dead." She didn't look pleased about it. "And he calls Ninth House heretics."

Greer continued to glow brighter and brighter even as his cavalier faded. Shaw's stomach lurched uneasily as she watched and she felt something tugging at the edge of her consciousness, almost like it had felt like with Root earlier, but not quite. Around them the lights flickered and dimmed. Out of the corner of her eye, Shaw saw Zoe and Tomas inching away from the Eighth House pair, both looking ill. She couldn't blame them for that since whatever was happening was making her see spots in her vision.

"Should we do something?" she asked Root quietly.

Before Root could respond, an eerie blue light started flickering within one of the bodies on the floor. There was an inhuman moan which at first Shaw thought had come from one of the corpses, but she realized it was actually coming from _behind her_ which was _worse_. Alicia Corwin must have been feeling the effects of the necromancy on top of all her other health problems because she was noticeably paler than usual and swaying back and forth. Martine, instead of assisting her distressed necromancer, pushed past her and strode straight over to Greer and Lambert. Neither of them reacted to her so there was no attempt to stop her when she hauled off and punched Greer squarely in the face. The old necromancer dropped like a sack of bricks.

The horrible pressure in the room vanished and the blue light went out. Lambert keeled over as well and all was still.

"Well, that was certainly dramatic," Zoe Morgan said.

Martine merely shrugged and returned to her distressed necromancer (though she offered her no reassurance).

The sound of footsteps on the ladder as well made all of them look up apprehensively. After a second, the bottom of a white robe was visible, and then Teacher appeared though he stayed on the ladder. Shaw had only seen him look cheerful before so the look of terror on his face was alarming.

"You must all come back upstairs immediately," he said. "You are in the gravest peril if you remain here. And bring the bodies up as well."

"Peril?" Daniel asked. "There's enough of us down here to face any threat, not that we've seen any sign of one."

"No, no," Teacher disagreed, shaking his head emphatically. "You are all in more danger now than you ever have been before and if you stay down here even a moment more I fear only the worst may happen."

Something about his expression made Shaw think he wasn't exaggerating. She nudged Root with her elbow. "I think he's serious. Let's go."

Root's face was wrinkled in a frown, but she nodded. "Yes, I think that might be best."

* * *

Greer woke up in time to climb the ladder himself, but his cavalier had to be carried up. They laid out Lambert on the floor near the hatch a polite distance from the two ruined bodies and Greer hovered over him, looking impatient.

The Second House necromancer and cavalier stood near the stairs up to the next floor, both with their arms crossed in an identical pose.

"The Cohort has to be informed, of course," Carter said. "We'll need reinforcements and a full investigation. If a murderer is among us, they'll need to be brought to justice."

"A murderer?" Zoe asked. "You really think one of us could have done this?"

"Who else?"

"I warned you when I gave you your keys that what lay down in the facility would be your death," Teacher said mournfully. "There are monsters down there beyond you imagining."

"The Cohort will still need to be informed," Carter insisted.

"I'm afraid that's quite impossible, Captain," Teacher said. "There's no line of communication that would allow you to reach them from here."

Kara Stanton had been watching in stony silence, but she now turned to Root. "Ninth were the only ones down in the facility when this happened."

"What reason would we possibly have for killing Fifth House?" Root asked with contempt.

"To prevent them from getting ahead of you maybe?"

"Accusing each other without evidence solves nothing," Carter cut in. "Ninth, did you lock the hatch behind you when you went down tonight?"

"Yes," Shaw said firmly. She'd done it herself. "And we didn't see anyone else when we were down there."

"Who else has a key to the hatch?" Dani asked.

"We do," Daniel said.

"As do we," Reese said from behind Kara.

"Eighth House also has one," Greer said.

"And Seventh," Martine said.

"Guess I'm the odd one out," Zoe said ruefully.

"We have one as well," Carter said. "But I'm not sure if anyone should anymore."

"You think you can take them from us?" Kara asked sharply. "Over my dead body, Second."

"I think there's been quite enough dead bodies for one night," Zoe said mildly.

Everyone looked at the corpses.

"I'd like to do an autopsy," Daniel said at last. "Perhaps you'd assist me?" He looked at Shaw.

"Sure, but not tonight." She was running on empty. "You're on your own until I've slept."

"We have other things to attend to tomorrow," Root reminded her quietly.

The key. In all that excitement she'd forgotten.

"Very well," Daniel said. "I'll do an initial examination tonight and you can add your findings in the morning." He turned to Teacher. "Is there somewhere we can store them to preserve the bodies?"

"Yes, I suppose there is."

Shaw had been keeping half an eye on the Eighth and turned when Greer stood up. At his feet, Lambert was awake again.

"That took you entirely too long," Greer said critically.

"What happened?" Lambert asked. His face still looked deathly pale.

"We were very rudely interrupted." Greer glared suspiciously at Shaw.

"Wasn't me, dude."

"That was our doing," Martine said cooly. "Your little games were a danger to all of us, so I was forced to act."

"You will be called upon to answer for that in good time," Greer told her. "A duel of necromancers or cavaliers will suffice."

Martine looked pityingly down at Lambert. "If you wish to embarrass yourself further, the Seventh is happy to oblige."

Greer looked at her and then down at his own cavalier and Shaw saw the enthusiasm for a vengeful duel leave him.

Teacher must have finished with the others because he came over to Greer. "What you did is too dangerous to try here. There's no telling what might take up residence in his body while his soul is displaced. You must not do that again."

Greer sneered at him but didn't argue.

"We should go, Shaw."

Root's voice drew her attention away from the unfolding drama.

"No arguments from me." She was dead on her feet.

No one tried to speak to them as they left, and it was a distinct relief to be away from the others, although the empty halls of Canaan House seemed more eerie and oppressive now.

"What do you think killed them?" Shaw asked as they walked.

"I'm not sure, but there were fragments of bone in the wounds which makes it unlikely it was a cavalier."

"Definitely no rapier wounds," Shaw agreed. "Are there really monsters down there like Teacher said? The construct was strong enough to do something like that, but it was trapped in that room and busy with us."

"I'm not sure what's down there," Root admitted. "That whole place feels off to me."

When they got back to their rooms, Root changed for bed with unprecedented speed.

"You can have half the bed tonight if you want," she said when Shaw emerged from the bathroom. "After your fight you should sleep somewhere you can rest well."

The offer reminded Shaw of what had happened earlier between them. The whole thing felt awkward now after everything else that had occurred. Probably for the best they'd been interrupted--it would have been a terrible idea. Far too complicated.

"I'm fine on the floor," she said firmly.

"Shaw…" Root cut herself off. "If you insist, but we start early tomorrow. We need to find out what's behind that door now more than ever."

"Fine." Shaw went back to her room without saying any more. She fell asleep the second she lay down and slept soundly until late in the morning, though dark shadows crept through her dreams.

* * *

Root had already left when Shaw woke up, but the key ring was still secure where Shaw had hidden it. There was a strange noise echoing through the room and it took her a minute to figure out where it was coming from. Rain beat down on the windows from a grey sky. Below, the ocean was dark and angry in the storm.

Shaw watched the water rolling down the windows for a good while, fascinated despite herself. She'd seen rain before during her time in the Cohort, but nothing like this. Root never would have seen it at all which might explain where she'd run off to.

Shaw dragged on fresh clothes and armed herself before setting out to find her missing necromancer. The drama of the previous night came back to her and hastened her steps. This really wasn't the best time for Root to be wandering alone.

The closest door to the outside let out onto a huge balcony. In the middle of it, face turned up to the rain, was Root, her black robes wet and her face paint running. She had her eyes shut and an expression like ecstasy on her face that made Shaw feel like she was interrupting something private.

"Root," she called from the dry safety under a ledge near the building. "You probably shouldn't be out in this."

Root turned her head to look at her. "It's just rain, Shaw."

"Might be acidic." She sort of wanted to join her though. The fresh smell in the air was completely alien, and it tugged at her.

"Once we leave here, I might never see it again. I think that calls for a few minutes of appreciation."

Root's robes were drenched as if she'd been out here for quite some time. Shaw huddled in the dry spot until it became clear that Root wasn't going to move on her own. She cursed under her breath and splashed through the puddles to join her.

"I thought you wanted to open the door first thing," she said.

"The door. Yes." Root sighed with regret. "I wish we had rain on the Ninth."

"Maybe you could move your House to another planet some day."

"And leave the tomb behind? Not likely."

"You could just leave. They'd find someone else to deal with it eventually."

"Also not an option." Root turned back towards the building. "If I become a Lyctor though, perhaps I'd be able to see more worlds. I always wanted to see rain and snow one day, and I suppose I've gotten half my wish now." She stepped back under the cover of the roof and turned to look back out at the rainy balcony. "Maybe it will rain again while we're here." She sounded defeated, something Shaw had never heard from her before.

They were silent on the walk back, the only sound their shoes squeaking on the wood floors. Root looked out every window they passed and Shaw tried not to notice how genuinely mournful she looked. Who knew the powerful, mysterious Reverend Daughter could be reduced to a sad shadow of herself by something so simple as rain?

Shaw didn't have any spare black robes so she had to settle for changing into dry pants and a fresh shirt and socks. Her wardrobe had always been primarily black even before she'd been sent to Ninth House, so she had plenty of suitable attire.

She'd assumed that Root had gone to change in the bathroom as she usually did, but when she came back into the main bedroom it was to the sight of Root's pale back as she stood naked before her wardrobe. Shaw immediately turned around though it was more for her own sanity than Root's privacy.

"Have you looked at the key yet, Shaw?" Root asked from behind her as if she wasn't standing only a few feet away without a shred of clothing on.

"Not yet." Shaw pulled the keyring out of her pocket to inspect it, grateful for the distraction. It was a big, metal key, stained a deep red and there was a familiar pattern emblazoned on it. "I think it's got the same markings as that door I found."

"Well that makes things easier." Root's voice was muffled.

"What do you think is in there?"

"No idea. Can you give me a hand?"

"With what?" Shaw asked apprehensively. She already had the sight of Root's naked back burned into her mind.

"Just a necklace clasp," Root said almost in her ear.

Shaw managed not to instinctively stab her. How the hell had Root snuck up on her? She turned around to see Root standing only inches away, fully robed and with a necklace of bones dangling from one finger. She hadn't redone her face paint yet so her amused expression was very evident.

Shaw took the necklace from her and motioned for her to turn back around. Root swept her hair away from her neck after she turned to bare her neck. Shaw fumbled with the tiny clasp on the necklace and then cautiously draped it around Root's neck. It was harder to work the clasp this way--especially since Root had some height on her--and she was intensely aware of the fine hairs on the back of Root's neck. She found she was holding her breath to keep from breathing on Root. Once she finally got the clasp to hook she stepped back and breathed out. She'd had a truly debauched threesome just yesterday and hadn't batted an eye but here she was unable to function after putting a necklace on Root.

Root stepped away and spun around in a swirl of her robes to smile as her. "Thank you, sweetie."

"Can we go now?" She stared at the ground and tried not to think about kissing Root last night.

"Give me a minute to fix my face, and then we'll be ready."

Shaw watched the rain hitting the window while Root used the mirror in the bathroom to repaint her face. It figured that now she could benefit from standing out in the cold rain for a few minutes. Maybe she could find Tomas later and work out all this tension. Tomas had the benefit of being very uncomplicated.

She almost jumped out of her skin when a warm hand rested on the back of her neck. She spun, grabbing Root's wrist and twisting it around into a lock. Root only smiled innocently at her.

"Someone's jumpy."

"Fifth House got killed less than a day ago. I think that calls for a little bit of jumpiness." She released Root's wrist.

"Then we should hurry."

She was dying of hunger, but she didn't try to convince Root to stop for food. The determined look on Root's face said that she was willing to dig her heels in for this and Shaw didn't want to give Root a reason to focus on her just now.

She was aware that Root was probably trying to seduce her in her own bizarre way, and she didn't know what to do about it. Usually when someone showed an interest, she either took them up on the offer or sent them on their way without delay. This prolonged teasing and tension wasn't what she was used to, and while, yes, they'd almost ended up in bed together last night, she had the feeling that sleeping with Root would only make things more complicated. Root was the heir to Ninth House, and Shaw had no interest in getting anywhere near the politics her world revolved around. And also she was _Root's cavalier_ and, even if she was a substitute cavalier, it still was considered bad form. She could pretend to care about tradition if she wanted to.

"Back here?" Root asked when they reached the bottom of the stairs. She brushed aside the tapestry and opened the door behind it. "I wonder if any of the others found this."

Shaw followed her back to the locked door at the end of the hall, letting all her thoughts about herself and Root slip away for now. There could be anything on the other side of that door and she needed to be ready for it. She took the keyring out and fitted the metal key into the keyhole. It turned with a satisfying clunk and the door swung upon under her hand.

It was pitch black inside and she stepped through first, fumbling along the wall for some way to activate the lights. Her fingers found a switch and bright electric lights sprang to life to illuminate a surprisingly modestly sized room. One side was covered in a workbench full of scrawled chalk symbols and bones, and the other side had a raised loft at the top of a few stairs. There was something distinctly odd about the place, though Shaw couldn't articulate what it was.

"It looks like this room was preserved," Root said as she looked around. "I almost wouldn't be surprised to see fresh fruit still sitting here."

"There's no dust on anything," Shaw agreed. There were some rapiers on a rack on one wall, all shiny and polished. "It's like someone left in a hurry and sealed it up behind themselves."

"Check the loft," Root said, already on her way towards the lab-like area with all the bones.

Shaw climbed up into the small loft to find a rather cramped but cozy living area. There were two beds right next to each other, a bookshelf, and an armchair. The downstairs area had already given her an idea who had lived here, but this confirmed it. Who else would need to sleep so close together without sharing a bed?

"I think a necromancer and cavalier lived here," she called over to Root.

Root didn't look up from whatever she'd found in the lab. "Obviously. I suspect it was one of the Lyctors."

Shaw sat down on the edge of one bed and looked around some more. There was a tea set on a table, laid out like it had been in use. A book under one of the beds didn't yield anything interesting, but did have an engraving inside the front cover: some letters that meant nothing to her and then the words 'One Flesh, One End'. The elegantly drawn words seemed to be taunting her and she shut the book sharply and dropped it back on the floor. She didn't need any words to make her watch Root's back for her.

She opened the drawer of the nightstand between the beds. Inside were a few sharpening stones and a seal with the white and red crest of Second House. That would explain the red-stained key then.

Since she was out of things to snoop through, she went over to see what mischief her necromancer had gotten into. Root was hovering over two stone tablets covered with tiny writing and diagrams that had been set into the table. She had her notebook out and was scribbling in it at a furious rate, her face scrunched up in concentration.

"Is that important?" Shaw asked, looking it over dubiously.

"It's the complete theorem from the trial. All the information needed for transference and the utilization of a living soul." She sounded very excited about that.

"So the trial was proving you had the aptitude to learn the real thing?" That sort of made sense. "Why do you need a cavalier for that then? Just to have someone's mind to hijack?"

Root made a noncommittal noise and kept scribbling so Shaw wandered off to inspect the rapiers. What she'd missed earlier was an entire set of blocky objects on the wall near them that upon inspection she realized could only be guns.

"This place is fucking ancient," she called over her shoulder.

"If a Lyctor and their cavalier lived here then I'd imagine it could be nearly ten thousand years old."

They could have asked Daniel to date the place for them since that sort of thing was Sixth House's specialty, but Shaw thought it wise not to suggest that to Root.

Root's eyes were glowing with a manic energy when she finally stepped away from the tablets. She'd managed to get ink all over her hands and she was clutching her notebook to her chest like it was precious to her.

"Did you find anything else?" she asked.

Shaw shrugged. "Nothing really. A Second House seal and some books."

"Second House," Root repeated thoughtfully. "I wonder if each key will grant us access to a different House's quarters."

"I'm going to have to fight seven more of those things?"

"I highly doubt that any of the trials are copies of each other. No, the next challenge will be something brand new."

"Great," Shaw said without enthusiasm. She nodded at the rack of rapiers by the wall. "Think I'd get in trouble for taking one of those?"

Root walked over to examine them. "They're technically the property of First House now, though I can't imagine the Emperor is going to notice one missing." She ran a finger over the hilt of one. "They're exquisitely made." She selected one from the rack and held the blade lightly in her hands so she could extend the handle towards Shaw. "This one."

Shaw took the blade from her carefully and weighed it in her hand. It was one of the plainest ones on the rack, but it had been the one that had caught her eye. "Who taught you about swords? I thought necromancers weren't interested in that sort of thing."

Root shrugged. "I like to know a little of everything. Necromancers aren't suited for physical combat, but there's no reason not to understand the principles." She rested a hand on Shaw's forearm. "Hold onto it for now. If you're concerned, I can formally request permission to take it from Teacher."

"That might not be a bad idea. Don't want the Emperor showing up at my door because I stole a First House sword. And the last thing I need is a vengeful ghost coming after me for taking its sword." Root's palm was warm on her arm.

"Even if the Lyctor this belonged to died, likely it was far from here." Root released her and headed towards the door. "I need some time to study this theorem, but after that we'll head back down into the facility."

Shaw took one of the also perfectly-preserved leather sheaths from the wall before following her out.

"Food first," she said as she locked the door behind them.

"I had something before you woke up."

Shaw couldn't tell if she was telling a lie to avoid a possible delay to nerding out over her new theorem or not. "I can bring something back to the room for you."

Root held the tapestry back for her as they left the hall. "That's sweet, but I'm fine."

"If you pass out again, the other cavaliers will make fun of me." It was only partly a joke.

"I promise not to pass out while you're gone," Root said and shooed her towards the dining room.

Shaw insisted on escorting her back to the room anyway, partly because Root seemed to have forgotten that two of their number had been brutally murdered last night, and partly because she didn't trust Root not to sneak off to the facility without her, key or no key. Once Root was ensconced in a chair by the window where she could watch the rain while she did her necromancer thing, Shaw finally left her and headed towards the dining room. The dining room had a new addition in the form of metal pails and tubs placed on and around tables to catch the water that leaked through the ceiling. Lovely.

She hadn't expected to find anyone there, but she was pleased to see Tomas sitting at a table eating lunch by himself. He waved when he saw her and she went to join him.

"Nice sword," he said when she set her new rapier down on the table next to her.

"Thanks, I stole it from the Emperor." And the sword was exactly why she'd been pleased to find him. "You free for a round or two?"

Tomas hesitated. "I suppose so. I don't like leaving Zoe after what happened last night, but she told me to stop hovering and find a way to entertain myself for a few hours."

A skeleton server set a plate of food in front of Shaw and she dug in with relief. "What do you think happened?" she asked once she'd devoured half the plate.

Tomas looked troubled. "It must have been one of the monsters that Teacher told us about, surely. This whole building has made me uneasy since we arrived."

"So you don't think one of us could have done it?"

"For what gain? The Fifth were pompous and insufferable, but those aren't motives for murder." Tomas looked around the room and dropped his voice. "Do you suspect someone?"

"Not particularly, though I wouldn't put anything past that old coot from Eighth House."

"He's definitely disagreeable, and whatever it was he tried to do last night was unsettling, but do you really think he'd murder another House?"

"Let's just say that if he invites me down to the basement to sample his vintage wine I'm not going to take him up on the offer."

They headed down to the training room after they finished eating. Shaw hadn't stopped to look at the pool when she'd been down here earlier, but now she saw it was clean, even the tiles around it gleaming white. A large hose of some sort was dumping water into it and the air smelled strongly like the ocean.

"Who got them to clean the pool?" she asked as they walked past.

"It was Zoe's idea."

Making the old palace look fancy again despite people dropping dead all over was about what she expected from Third House, though her conversation with Zoe last night at dinner made her acknowledge that perhaps that was a little unfair.

She made a couple practice cuts through the air with her new rapier as Tomas took his cape off. It was perfectly balanced and felt light in her hand. Second House had taken pride in their weapons even thousands of years ago.

"Where did you find that?" Tomas asked. He pulled what looked like a bundle of metal rods from his belt and flicked his wrist so they all unfolded and snapped together to form a short staff with three blades on the end. Third House loved symbolism and Tomas's trident was no exception.

"Oh, just lying around." She trusted Tomas a good bit more than any of the others, but she wasn't about to share Ninth House secrets with him.

Shaw had always suspected that one of the reasons she'd slept with Tomas and Kelli regularly was that they were both extremely fun to fight against. Kelli preferred a net or a cloak for her off hand--both of which Shaw thought were kind of lame--and she used them cleverly. Nets were prone to tangle up their wielder as frequently as an opponent, but Kelli had been an expert with it. She'd never been even half as good with a blade as Shaw, but she made up for it by being skilled in deception and misdirection.

Tomas was a much more straight-forward fighter than that, but he had a joy about him as he fought that Kelli had never shown. He'd never shown any interest in joining the Cohort or actually fighting in real life or death battles, but in a duel his eyes shone and his grin was savage. None of this prevented Shaw from soundly trouncing him repetitively, but they both had a damn good time of it.

"It's almost like you got even faster when you were on the Ninth," Tomas said after his third defeat. "Did the Reverend Daughter have skeletons chase you around all day?"

"No, she mostly left me alone."

"Really? The two of you seem quite close now. I thought perhaps you'd agreed to stand as her cavalier out of affection."

"I don't do affection. And no, nothing like that." Tomas was lucky he was so easy to read so she could tell that he wasn't implying anything. Otherwise she really would have wiped the floor with him.

"Why then?" He held up his hands to fend off her glare. "I'm asking as a friend who's concerned about your well-being. I don't tell Zoe things she doesn't need to know about others. She's good enough at finding those out herself."

"It was just a good way to get away from Ninth House for a while. Plus I figured it wouldn't hurt to have the Ninth owe me one." It had been the truth at the time, though it felt like a lie now. "Let's go again."

She laid her knife across her chest to salute him and then transitioned easily into a fighting stance. Tomas mirrored her and then they began.

She wasn't fully used to the weight and length of the new blade, but it still felt natural in her hand. She'd never like a rapier as much as her knives, but this one came close. They fought back and forth across the room, Shaw not pushing to end the fight the way she would have in an actual duel, but instead enjoying the exchange of attacks. When she finally tapped Tomas on the chest with the point of her blade, they were both breathing hard.

"I should get back to Zoe," Tomas said as they caught their breath. "Whatever it was that killed Fifth House is still out there."

"Good point." Her thoughts had strayed to her reckless necromancer more than once in the last hour. She thought back about Alicia Corwin's dark prediction at dinner. If something or someone was intent on killing them all, then the way every House was intent on going it alone was going to make it easy for the killer.

"I can't give you any information that would compromise Ninth House," Shaw said when they reached the top of the stairs up from the pool room, "but I'm open to sharing any information I find about who killed Fifth House. The necromancers can be as secretive as they want about this Lyctor crap, but I don't intend to get killed over it."

"I can agree to that," Tomas said. "You know, the real job of a cavalier is to keep their necromancer safe even when they're being foolish."

"I noticed." If circumstances had been different, she might have invited him to blow off some steam after their workout, but she needed to go make sure her idiot necromancer wasn't getting herself in trouble. And she was also sort of looking forward to whatever their next challenge in the facility was. Cautiously looking forward to.

She arrived back at their rooms just in time to find Root on her way out.

"There you are. We need to get to work now." She tossed Shaw her mostly-dry robe.

Shaw had been hoping to clean up first, but instead she found herself climbing down the ladder into the facility again. There was still blood on the floor at the bottom and tape outlines where the bodies had been.

"I was going to go examine the bodies," she remembered. It had completely slipped her mind.

"You can do that later. They're not getting any deader." Root practically bounced with impatience.

"Where are we headed then?" Shaw asked and then pushed Root to one side and stepped in front of her, hand on her rapier. Coming down the hall towards them was the Seventh House necromancer and her cavalier.

"Can we help you?" Shaw asked coldly.

Alicia Corwin cleared her throat, a horrible noise that sounded like she had an entire Cohort squad lodged in there. And then she spoke the last words Shaw would ever have imagined coming from Seventh House.

"Seventh House would like to formally request the help of Ninth House for our mutual benefit."


	9. Avulsion!

Alicia Corwin turned to her cavalier and gestured for her to step forward.

"Speaking is causing Duchess Corwin some discomfort today," Martine explained coolly.

"Tragic, I'm sure," Root said, "but I hope you have more incentive than relying on our pity."

Shaw was impressed; that had been cold even for Root.

Martine didn't seem to notice though. "The Duchess has determined the solution to one of the many challenges down here, however she is unable to complete it on her own due to...physical limitations. We'll tell you how to complete it and in exchange we get access to the rewarded key after you're done with it."

"The challenges were not meant to be done as a group exercise," Root said dismissively.

Martine raised an eyebrow at her. "Really? I don't remember Teacher saying anything along those lines."

Shaw kind of hated that it was Martine of all people pointing that out even if it really needed to be pointed out.

Root's eyes narrowed and she stared at Martine in icy silence. All the sweat Shaw had worked up while fighting froze to her skin under the blasting air vents down here. She was about to shake Root to break up the staring contest going on when Root said, "Fine."

Shaw blinked, unsure she'd heard her correctly.

"This way then," Martine said.

"Are you out of your mind?" Shaw hissed as they followed Seventh House through the facility hallways.

"If we don't agree, someone else will," Root explained, "and I won't risk the others getting ahead."

"Is there a penalty for being the last Lyctor that I'm unaware of?"

"I am the best necromancer in the galaxy. I will not come in last. I will not even settle for coming in second."

"Someone was just murdered and you want to wander into the scary death facility with two of the most suspicious people here. Don't make me drag you back to your room and lock you in."

"You're welcome to try."

Shaw clenched her jaw but didn't try again. Root's pockets were no doubt full of bones which meant she could have an army of skeletons restrain Shaw within seconds. Later, they were going to have words about this.

If either of the Seventh House pair had overheard their fiercely whispered exchange, they gave no indication. They led the way through the hallways to an area Shaw hadn't been to before. A different set of labs and, within them, a door marked: #14-8 DIVERSION. PROCEDURAL CHAMBER

Underneath that someone had scrawled in pen: AVULSION!

None of these words thrilled Shaw.

The room on the other side thrilled Shaw even less. It was a long room with a low roof, but half of it was cut off by a huge metal grate. Martine walked past them and flipped a switch that caused the grate to rise up. Steps led down to the second part of the room and a line of black and yellow tape ran across the floor beyond the steps. At the far end of the room Shaw could see a short metal pillar with a clear box of some sort on top. It was easily 100 meters to the pillar so she couldn't tell what was in the box.

Root drifted down to the stairs and right up to the tape line before Shaw could stop her. "So what's the catch?" she asked.

"You'll see," Martine said helpfully.

Root extended one finger over the tape line and jerked her hand back as if she'd been burned. Her finger looked withered away, the nail almost fallen off. She shook her hand in irritation and the skin smoothed out, the nail reformed.

"How delightfully nasty," she said in appreciation.

Shaw shifted her weight from one foot to the other, uneasy. Everything about this felt like a trap, but she didn't know enough about necromancy to see what it might be.

"Maybe we should--"

But Root stuck her hand out again. This time there was a shower of blue sparks before she yanked her hand back again.

"Wards won't work," Alicia Corwin said. She was sitting on the floor all the way near the door and watching Root wearily. "Neither will bone. No construct will survive in there."

"This should be impossible," Root said almost to herself as she paced back and forth in front of the tape line. "I think there must be two spells at work here: one that will decay anything inside the field, and one that will negate any necromantic attempts to stop the decay."

"Very clever," Martine said.

"That sounds bad," Shaw said. "Like certain death levels of bad."

"So it would appear." Root tapped her lip with one finger as she contemplated the room. "You said you knew how to solve this puzzle?"

"Siphoning." The word sounded even more horrible coming from Corwin's raw throat.

"That's Eighth House's parlour trick, not mine," Root objected. "And I believed Teacher when he said it was dangerous to try that down here."

"Greer siphons by temporarily relocating the soul of his cavalier," Martine said. "Power pours into the empty space left behind and Greer can access a near endless supply of it as long as he keeps his cavalier in suspension like that. This would not be the same."

Corwin nodded in agreement besides her.

"What then?" Root asked suspiciously.

"The Duchess said to tell you that you will need a source of thalergy on this side of the field to draw on. You pull power that the field cannot reach and use it to protect yourself as you advance down the hall."

"No." Root sounded very certain. "That isn't an option."

"That's exactly what the Sixth House necromancer said," Martine said as she straightened up. "It's like none of you want to be Lyctors after all."

Root turned back to glare at the field and Shaw almost thought she could see the fury rising off of her. She walked down the steps to join her.

"Did she mean what I think she meant?" Shaw asked quietly.

"Thalergy is life energy," Root said. "The opposite of thanergy. I'd need a large source of someone's life force on this side of the field that I could tap into, like, say, the life force of my cavalier." She shook her head in disgust. "Maybe I should have brought Lionel along after all."

"You think Fusco would be more useful here than me?" Shaw was offended enough to momentarily forget what they were contemplating here.

"Of course not. That's not what--" Root stepped away from her and paced to the wall and then back. "We'll find a different challenge to undertake."

Shaw looked down at the metal pillar with the clear box on it. "How long?"

"How long for what?"

"How long would it take you to get down there and back?"

"Shaw, I'm not--"

"Seventh House told you how to do this because they think you'll fail, and in the off chance you don't, they get the key after us. Win-win for them."

"Which is why we should leave now."

Shaw almost agreed with her. Hell, a few minutes ago she'd been arguing that they should leave, but that was before she'd seen Martine and her smug little smile as she watched their dilemma. She knew what a bully looked like.

"I thought you were the best necromancer in the galaxy," she said to Root.

"Appealing to my ego is a nice try, but it's not going to work."

Shaw stayed quiet because she was pretty sure it was.

"Second House has a similar trick," Root said after a moment. "They drain the life force out of enemies and use it to augment their cavalier. Their enemies die in agony."

"You're not going to take enough to kill me though, right?"

Root looked down at the box and then back. "Even if I don't, this will cause you an extreme amount of pain. It could also leave you with brain damage if I take too long."

"Guess you'll have to be fast then."

Root tsked in annoyance. "You shouldn't be so careless with your own life, Shaw."

Like she was one to talk. "The challenges were set up to be passed. That's why there's a reward at the end. That means that it's possible to do this challenge correctly without killing me."

"Unless it's possible to do the other challenges without a cavalier," Root objected and then caught herself. "Except we already know that it's not."

"Exactly. So let's do this."

Root looked at her curiously. "You trust me that much?"

Shaw snorted. "I trust you about half as far as I could throw your bony ass, but I don't think you're going to fuck this up."

Root raised a hand to cup Shaw's face. She had her serious face on that said she was up to necromantic shit, but Shaw didn't feel anything. Maybe the tiniest twinge.

"If this works," Root said, her face inches from Shaw's, "you can do whatever you want to my bony ass later, sweetie." She stepped back and looked down at herself thoughtfully. "That part was surprisingly easy. The next part though…." She gave Shaw a little push away from the tape. "Sit. Or, better yet, lie down."

"I don't need to--"

"Sit," Root insisted.

Shaw sat on the top step. She didn't feel anything yet; maybe Root had been exaggerating.

"One last thing," Root said as she turned back to face the field. "If you throw off my hold on you at any point, the field will kill me instantly." She let out a breath and squared her shoulders. "We're both going to have to trust each other on this one."

"Go get your key." Shaw risked a look back at Seventh House who were both still sitting quietly by the far wall. Corwin was watching without expression, but Martine had that horrible little grin on her face still.

"Be ready," Root said, a final warning before she stepped across the tape line.

The pain hit Shaw instantly, like being smashed in the face with a brick. She wasn't aware of collapsing onto her side, but the metal grating of the floor was pressed against her face. Her skull ached and every individual tooth in her head was a throbbing point of agony.

She'd fallen facing the field, so she could see Root walking forwards towards the pillar at what seemed like an impossibly slow pace. She was hunched forwards as if pushing against a very strong force and all around her was a fine black haze that Shaw realized was her robes disintegrating.

The pain spread, pulling Shaw's attention back to her own tortured body. It shot down her neck, through her arms, her heart, her stomach. It was like an expanding ball of knives inside her leaving her cut open and bleeding wherever it went. She could feel hot blood dripping from her nose and grey spots swam before her eyes making it hard for her to see Root's progress.

She could still _feel_ Root though, like a weight on the other end of a chain tying them together. Her life flowed into Root and all that came back were endless waves of pain. It would have been so easy to push Root's touch away, to make all the pain stop, but that wasn't an option. Root was the necromancer of Ninth House and Shaw was sort of her cavalier primary and she had no intention of letting Daniel be right about this challenge. Maybe Sixth House should have thought twice before sending away the best fighter they'd ever had.

The petty spite only gave her a moment's reprieve before the pain hit her full force again and drowned out all rational thoughts. She thought she might be making some kind of noise, but her ears weren't working that well either. Her whole body felt like raw nerve endings being run through a shredder.

"What the fuck is she doing?" The voice was distant, and possibly familiar, but Shaw didn't have enough coherence left to place it.

Her whole body was jostled by an outside force, and the pain exploded in bright stars behind her eyelids, and then someone was touching her face and her hair.

"I'm going to kill her if she survives," the new voice said.

Shaw had all her remaining awareness focused on not pushing Root's connection to her away so she couldn't even begin to respond.

"She's got the key," the voice announced. "She's coming back now. Just a little longer, Shaw."

Shaw could feel Root's progress in some way, could feel when she faltered and almost fell. She dug into herself and pushed more of her life towards Root. If Root didn't make it back then all this would be for nothing. Once she'd thought she wanted to be a cavalier and spend her life guarding her necromancer, and then she'd joined the Cohort instead to protect the galaxy, and now with that taken away from her she was damned if she'd fail to protect the only thing she had left.

"Sameen?" It was a different voice now and she managed to crack her eyelids open. Root's face floated in front of her, completely free of face paint. She was also, Shaw realized with an extremely mixed cascade of reactions, completely naked.

"Shaw, can you hear me?"

Shaw searched her scattered thoughts for an appropriately cocky response that wouldn't give away the fact she felt like raw death, but passed out before she could come up with one.

* * *

Shaw had hoped to wake up in a soft bed being waited on hand and foot by her extremely grateful necromancer who would preferably only be wearing a skimpy nightgown, but she woke up to chaos. When she peeled her eyes open she found that she was still mostly on the floor of the same room she'd passed out in, but now Daniel and Kelli were both there as well. She herself was lying half in Root's lap and Root had looped an arm around her to hold her in place. Root had a bloody nose and a snarl on her face. Kelli had a bruise on her cheek and Daniel had traces of blood sweat on his forehead. Pieces of bones littered the floor. Two intact skeletons stood at attention next to Root, passive for the moment.

Apparently there'd been a fight. She wondered who had won.

"She's awake," Daniel said with evident relief.

"What the fuck happened?" Shaw asked groggily. She tried to sit up, but Root's arm tightened around her. Usually Root's scrawny necromancer arms wouldn't have stood a chance, but Shaw currently felt so weak that a feather could have held her down.

"Your friends here seem to think I coerced you into helping me," Root said tightly.

"Oh." Kelli did look furious. She must have been the one who'd shown up in the middle of things. Shaw couldn't remember everything she'd said. "It was my idea."

"That doesn't change anything," Kelli insisted. "Shaw is from Sixth House, not Ninth, and you damn near killed her."

"Sixth House certainly seems to care about their own," Root said. "When it suits their purposes at least. I could have murdered Shaw the day she arrived on the Ninth and none of you would ever have known."

"Uhhh," Shaw said eloquently. Even thinking made her headache worse and having everyone yelling and talking about theoretically murdering her was definitely not helping.

"Just relax," Root said quietly in her ear. "I'll deal with them and then we can go back to our rooms."

Shaw suspected no one would enjoy the method Root chose to 'deal with them'. She turned to look at the one person who hadn't said anything yet. Daniel looked uncertain, one hand half-extended as if to grab Kelli's arm if she tried to charge. He met Shaw's eyes and must have seen something there because he sighed and nodded.

"Kelli, we should leave them be."

Kelli looked like she was about to argue, but Daniel cut her off. "Shaw, what do you want?"

Shaw considered her options. She was aware that behind her Root had stopped breathing.

"I'm fine here, thanks." She tried to sit up again and this time Root didn't stop her but she still couldn't quite make it. She slumped back against Root.

"I think we should respect her wishes," Daniel said to Kelli. "Sixth House hasn't done well in that respect in the past."

Kelli still looked murderous, but also hurt. "You're sure?" she asked Shaw.

"Yeah."

"Let's leave them alone," Daniel said. "Unless you require assistance getting her back up the ladder?"

"We'll manage," Root assured him acidly.

Sixth House left the room with only a single glance back at them.

"I thought they'd never go," Root said. She brushed Shaw's hair back out of her face. "Now we need to get you back to a real bed, not that I mind you sleeping on me."

"You got the key?" Shaw asked. When she tried to sit up this time, Root helped her.

"I got the key," Root assured her. She was no longer naked since she was wearing Shaw's robe now and Shaw couldn't decide if she was disappointed or relieved.

"What happened to Seventh House?" She couldn't remember anything about them from after the point Root had crossed the tape.

"They left shortly after I retrieved the key. I think they weren't interested in getting involved in an inter-House dispute and the show they'd come here for was over." Root stood and offered her a hand up.

It took both of Root's hands, some help from a skeleton, and Shaw grabbing the wall to get Shaw back to her feet again. She'd woken up in a bad state multiple times in her life, but nothing like this. She had to lean heavily on Root in order to stagger out into the hall.

"Did you start a fight with Kelli?" Shaw asked as they slowly made their way down the hall.

"She didn't want to let me check on you. Her and Daniel wanted to cart you off somewhere before you even woke up. So I...retrieved you from your little cavalier friend and I suppose Daniel took offense at that and did something rude to my skeletons. You woke up before we could start round two. They got lucky."

The fact Root had dredged up enough energy to make multiple skeletons and take on a necromancer and cavalier after the whole ordeal of getting the key was impressive. Shaw would have told her as much if she hadn't been contemplating collapsing on the floor again. Her brain checked out again around then and she only had very vague memories later of climbing the ladder (she thought there might have been skeletons involved) and staggering back to their rooms.

Root ushered her firmly over to the bed and sat her on the edge. Shaw failed to summon up the strength to object to Root pulling her boots and socks off, and only managed a slight whine of protest when Root took her rapier and knife away. She'd given up completely by the time Root pushed her back into the bed and pulled the blankets over her.

"Sleep," Root ordered, and for once Shaw didn't disagree.

* * *

The next time Shaw woke up was both better and worse. She felt like she had the worst hangover in her life multiplied by a hundred, but she no longer thought she was on the verge of death. However her new level of clarity allowed her to fully appreciate how awful she felt.

She pushed the blankets back and sat up. Her whole body felt like it was weighed down with lead and her tongue felt like sandpaper. There was a jug of water and a glass next to the bed and she greedily drank two glasses down.

While there was a remote possibility that Root had gone to sleep in Shaw's blanket nest in the other room, it was more likely that her notable absence was due to the fact she'd left to try out the key they'd won. Shaw would have been annoyed about that if she'd been back to a state where she had enough energy to feel anything other than tired.

She was halfway to the bathroom when someone knocked on the door. She froze, looking around for her weapons. Where the hell had Root stashed them?

"Shaw?" It was a voice she recognized and she managed to limp over to the door and open it to reveal John Reese holding a tray of food.

"What're you doing here?" she asked, impressed that her voice was almost normal. The food looked amazing but also made her want to throw up at the same time which was very unfair.

"Your necromancer drafted me to bring you breakfast."

Shaw frowned. "Why would she trust you?"

Reese grimaced. "I believe her exact words were 'you're too thick to try anything clever'."

"That sounds like her." Shaw stood aside to let him in. "Did she say where she was headed?"

"No, but she threatened to have an army of skeletons hang me from the highest tower by my toes if I tried to follow her." Reese set the tray down on a table. "Am I allowed to ask what happened to you, or will that get me in trouble as well?"

Shaw sat down heavily in a chair and started spooning some sort of gruel into her mouth. "It was a necromancer thing. I helped out with it."

Reese nodded as if that made total sense, but then said, "You're not actually her cavalier though. You never said the words, right? So you're not obligated to get yourself killed for her."

"I offered to help." She shoved more food in her face, feeling better with each bite. "Seems to me that a cavalier and necromancer would work better together because they wanted to rather than out of obligation."

Reese got an odd expression on his face at that, but he didn't press for more.

When Shaw finished eating, she stood up, feeling almost steady on her feet now. "I should go find Root."

"She said not to let you go after her."

Shaw was highly unimpressed with this information.

"You think you can stop me?"

Reese looked her over critically. "Right now I think even the Eighth House cavalier might stand a chance against you."

"Asshole." He wasn't wrong though. "Don't you have your own necromancer to hover over?"

"Kara is busy at the moment." He didn't look pleased about that.

Shaw considered her extremely limited options. "I'm going back to sleep. If Root isn't here when I wake up, I'm going to go find her and personally kick her off a cliff into the ocean."

Reese only smiled at that and backed away towards the door. "I'll wait outside for a bit in case you need anything."

"Suit yourself."

Shaw barely waited for him to leave before she crawled back into the bed and passed out.

* * *

Something tickled Shaw's face and she slapped at it.

"Are you awake?"

Shaw considered that. She wasn't sure she wanted to be awake yet, but…. She slowly opened her eyes to find Root staring down at her from closer than she considered necessary. Root had her face paint back on and her smile looked grotesque with it. Her hair looked different and it took Shaw a moment to realize that it was a few inches shorter. She could vaguely recall the death field in the facility disintegrating Root's robes. It must have taken off some of her hair as well. She was probably lucky not to be bald.

All the close-up eye contact was starting to make Shaw itch, so she quickly asked, "What was behind the door?"

"Another set of rooms, much like the first, and another theorem."

"Was whatever you found worth it?"

Something flickered in Root's eyes. "Ninth House owes you a great debt now, Shaw, as do I."

"I'm not going to be in any position to call in a debt if the next challenge is like this last one." Shaw rubbed her temples. She still had a slight headache. "Whoever designed these things must have had a grudge against cavaliers since they all seem set up to get me killed."

This time the flicker of Root's eyes was more distinct and she sat back with a frown. "I don't think that's…." She trailed off and her brow creased in thought.

Shaw pushed herself upright. "I'm in no state to go back into the facility today, but I thought I might go take a look at the bodies finally." She thought she could probably make it that far without falling on her ass.

"The bodies?" Root asked distantly. She still looked lost in thought.

"Fifth House? You know, the two who got brutally murdered not that long ago?"

"Oh right, of course." Root finally refocused on her. "Did you need me to come with you?"

"No." Probably.

She used the sonic in the bathroom to clean off while casting longing looks at the tub. Maybe there'd be time for that later. She felt a little more steady on her feet by the time she was strapping on her rapier and knife, but definitely still not at her best, and she didn't protest when Root made to leave with her.

"Did you give the key to Seventh House?" Shaw asked as they walked. They were going much slower than usual but Root hadn't commented on it.

"Yes, for all the good it will do them."

"You mean because of Corwin? I thought the whole dying thing made her necromancy stronger."

"That's not…." Root shook her head and fell silent. "They're keeping the bodies in the freezer. This way."

Root led the way to the kitchen of all places where a whole crowd of people had gathered.

"This is ridiculous," Joss Carter was saying. "If the only way out of here is to complete all the Lyctor trials, and the only way to do that is to find all of these keys, then under the circumstances we're going to need copies of them."

She and her cavalier had Teacher trapped at a table. Third, Fourth, and Sixth Houses were also in attendance and Teacher looked small sitting at the table in the center of them. He sipped his cup of tea as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"That's impossible, of course," he said calmly.

"I don't care about your damn rules," Carter snapped. "Two people are dead."

"Yes, I'm very much aware of that," Teacher said, "and if there were any way I could ensure the safety of the rest of you, I would, but I cannot give you the keys you require."

"Why not?"

"Why, because there's only a single copy of each."

That got a dead silence from the group and Shaw took a quick count of the reactions. Daniel and Kelli had already known, but the rest looked stunned. She'd suspected as much herself, but she hadn't thought about it too much until right now.

"How are any of us supposed to achieve Lyctorhood without all the keys?" Zoe asked into the silence. "Are we required to work together?"

"Not at all," said Teacher.

"But then what's to stop us from all fighting to take each other's keys? Or stealing them?" Tomas asked, incredulous.

"Nothing at all." Teacher sipped his tea while that sank in.

Everyone eyed each other uneasily, much like they had the night of the murders. Even Shaw hadn't quite put all the pieces together to understand where this would end up, but now it seemed obvious. A glance at Root said that she'd already known and yeah now her determination to stay ahead of the others made sense, though it had also made them a target. Maybe it was better that Seventh had that other key now.

Carter and Dani turned and left the room abruptly and Root nudged Shaw. "Time to go."

Instead of going back to their rooms, Root took her down a short staircase around the corner that led to a large, freezing cold room. This was where the priests must store their perishable food, from the looks of it, and also the corpses. Shaw had a few thoughts about that proximity but she put them on hold at the sight of Second House standing next to the slabs that held the icy bodies of Fifth House.

"It wasn't there when they were killed," Root said, "so I doubt it's materialized on their bodies since."

The keyring. Shaw looked at the frozen corpses. Had they completed a challenge the night they were killed? Was that _why_ they'd been killed?

Carter stepped away from the slabs. "Ninth House may be cut off from the rest of the Houses, but surely even you can see that we all need to work together on this now. If there's a murderer among us then we need to summon the Cohort here to bring them to justice." She looked at Shaw. "You served in the Cohort so you should understand."

"Leave me out of the politics, please," said Shaw. "I'm just here to crack open a cold corpse with the boys." She stepped around the Second House necromancer to look at the bodies.

Control and Schiffman had both been killed quite violently, though she couldn't even guess at the murder weapon. Some kind of large blade maybe, but not a particularly sharp one. Root had said there were bone fragments in the wounds, but it was hard to picture a giant bone sword...except it wasn't. The construct she'd been fighting when they'd been murdered had had bone arms like swords that could perhaps have fit these wounds. And since that construct had been busy that meant there might be another one roaming the facility. That or a necromancer who knew how to make one.

Second House had left while she'd done her examination, so she was free to report her findings to Root.

"Doesn't narrow it down much," Shaw said when she finished. "Necromancers or monsters."

"I'm not sure any of the others could make a construct like that," Root said thoughtfully. "Skeletons are a Ninth House specialty and I'm still figuring out how to make my own."

Root being able to make enormous skeleton monsters was exactly what Shaw didn't need. "Maybe one of them is holding out on how powerful they are."

"Maybe." Root didn't look convinced. "We should go before any of the others decide to challenge us for our keys while you're still recovering."

"I could take them," Shaw said, though she was pretty sure that was a lie.

"I know you could, but humor me and let's play it safe for tonight."

No one was in the dining room when they passed by on their way back to their rooms. Gone back to strategize in private no doubt. It seemed like a solid plan.

"I'm going to take a bath," Shaw announced when they got back. Her whole body ached and soaking in hot water seemed like just the thing.

"Of course," Root said. She had her notebook open and was turning through the pages with a troubled expression.

Shaw left her to it and went to fill the tub. She was happily ensconced in the hot water when the absolute worst thing that could happen occurred: there was a knock at the bathroom door.

Shaw looked at the tub and the door and made an estimate that as long as Root stayed on the far side of the room, her body would be hidden by the high edge of the tub. She wasn't self-conscious at all, but she didn't think Root seeing her naked would help keep things uncomplicated between them.

"Yeah?" she called.

Root opened the door, but stayed in the entrance. She'd wiped off her face paint and changed into her nightgown.

"Can I ask what Daniel meant yesterday? About Sixth House never offering you a choice."

"Oh, that." Shaw looked at the steaming hot water and considered her answer. "I think he meant I wasn't offered a choice about being sent to Ninth House."

"Why not?"

Shaw stared at her. She'd always thought Root must know what had happened. What had they told her when they'd petitioned to send Shaw there?

"Two people got killed and instead of a trial they sent me to Ninth House to disappear."

"Did you kill them?"

"One of them, but they blamed me for both."

Root nodded to herself. "Did they deserve it?"

"The first person to die was named Cole. He was a friend of mine. A man named Wilson killed him and then I killed Wilson." It felt like a million years ago now.

"And for that they didn't even give you a trial?"

"Wilson was the younger brother of the Master Warden at the time. There were...a lot of bad things they were both involved in and a trial might have stirred that up. Much easier to blame me for both deaths and send me off to rot in the darkest corner of the galaxy." She kept watching Root for a reaction, but Root's expression hadn't changed. "Does it bother you that I murdered someone?"

That question of all things was what got a smile out of Root, though a mildly terrifying one. "Who hasn't killed someone from time to time?"

Well then. Shaw wanted to explore that a little more, but there was a more pressing question to take care of first. "What did they even tell you when they sent me there?"

"Well, officially you were to be an ambassador, but unofficially they wanted you to take a fall off a high ledge one day."

"That figures." She stretched out in the water. "So why didn't you kill me?"

Root smiled at her. "I've never been very good at following orders. And also I thought you might liven the place up a little."

"Sorry to disappoint." She hadn't done much other than fight and read.

"You were definitely never a disappointment," Root said emphatically. "Though I always wished we'd gotten to know each other better. You made it clear you didn't want that though, and I tried to respect that. Mostly anyway." Her smile was teasing but hollow.

There were a lot of things Shaw could have said to that, but she still couldn't quite bring herself to air that particular incident yet. Trust had never been her strong suit and risking her life had always been easier than risking her future.

"Don't see how dragging me across the galaxy to almost get killed for you multiple times counts as that, but okay." Though Root had respected her privacy for the most part, even here.

"I am truly sorry for that," Root said with sincerity. "Lionel wouldn't have stood a chance here, and there was no one else, but if I'd known…. It was selfish of me."

"This whole self-abasing apology thing is freaking me out," Shaw said, sinking further down in the water. "Apology accepted if you let me finish my bath."

Root's face lit up. "Of course, Shaw." And miraculously she left without saying another word. The bath mood was ruined now though and Shaw finished up quickly.

Why had Root waited three whole years to ask her what she'd done to get banished from Sixth House? Why had she trusted Shaw to watch her back without knowing? Root was a mystery that just got more complex the more Shaw knew.

The complex mystery was sitting cross-legged on the bed when Shaw emerged from the bathroom.

"The offer of half the bed still stands," she said.

"Thanks, but my blankets are fine." All she could think of when it came to Root and beds was what it had felt like to press her body up against a wall in the basement. Definitely not something that led to a good night's sleep.

"Sleep well," Root called as she went back to her room.

"Yeah, you, too," Shaw said and then fled to avoid any response. She crawled into her blankets and was asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one of the biggest challenges of writing shaw in the gideon role is that gideon, who I love with my entire heart, is just extremely fucking oblivious and easily distracted by pretty ladies and shaw is incredibly observant and clever in a different way than gideon and therefore much more likely to put the pieces together. similarly harrow and root think very differently. basically what I'm saying is I think root and shaw would have figured a lot of stuff out earlier and it was tough making sure they didn't but hinting that they were thinking in the right direction.
> 
> side note but I always wanted to know which of the og lyctors actually wrote Avulsion! on the door.


	10. Ashes

Shaw had thought that Root would be all gung-ho to head down into the facility the next morning, but instead Root seemed to be fully occupied with a vast number of pages of flimsy that she'd spread out over her bed. She would scribble furiously on one piece and then place it in the complicated arrangement on the table only to grab another and start writing again. There were ink stains on her fingers and even one splash of black ink across her cheek (her bare cheek as she hadn't bothered to put on her paint yet). She had a skeleton on either side of the bed and every so often one of them would hand her a piece of flimsy or take one from her and add it to the arrangement of sheets on the bed.

"Is this important?" Shaw asked. She tried to pick up a piece of flimsy, but Root slapped her hand away.

"Very." She rubbed her face, getting more ink on it. "Or maybe not at all. I wish I knew what the point of the challenges is."

"Isn't it to teach you important Lyctor things?"

"Lyctors are immortal and far more powerful than any necromancer. Supposedly, anyway. Not many solid facts are known about them. But how did they achieve that? Did the Emperor grant them power or did they unlock it themselves? Is the point of these challenges to find or win something, or to become something?" Root chewed on her lip as she surveyed the mess around her. "I feel like I'm missing something."

"Probably breakfast." Shaw needed food before she could deal with Lyctor riddles. "I'm going to go eat. You should come with me."

Root shook her head, already engrossed in peering at a piece of flimsy. "Go on without me."

Shaw was almost out the door when Root called after her.

"Try to avoid the others. After the revelation of the keys yesterday someone is going to start trouble soon, and it would be best if we could avoid that, at least until you're back in top shape."

Shaw felt mostly better, but her body was still a little sluggish. Annoying. And doubly annoying that Root had noticed.

"I'll be sneaky," she promised.

It would have been very hard to be sneaky in the dining hall, so she bypassed it completely and went directly to the kitchens to procure a meal from the skeleton servants. The skeletons kept trying to take back the food she picked up and usher her out, but three years on Ninth House had taught her how to effectively blindside bone constructs and she soon had a stolen bowl stuffed full of food. She was congratulating herself on a job well done when she stepped out into the hall and came face to face with Dani Silva.

The Second House cavalier looked even more rigid than usual, wound almost to the point of breaking. Her hand was clutching her rapier hilt, knuckles white. "You need to come with me, immediately."

Shaw removed the hunk of bread she'd been carrying in her teeth so she could reply. "Come with you where? And why?"

"There's another body."

* * *

It took over thirty minutes to get almost everyone gathered--especially since no cavalier would show up without their necromancer in tow--but in the end all the Houses except for Fourth and Seventh huddled on a large outside terrace. It wasn't raining, but it was damp and foggy and Shaw's clothes stuck to her as they approached the only structure on the terrace: a tall metal chimney. Carter stood in front of the open grate on the side examining a pile of smoking ashes.

"That's a body?" Lambert asked doubtfully. "Looks more like a ploy for Second House to distract us with."

It was the first time Shaw had seen him since Greer had siphoned from him and he looked completely recovered, though his skin retained its unhealthy yellow tinge. Greer touched his arm and Lambert fell into a quiet sulk.

"Two bodies," Carter said. "The rest of you are welcome to verify that."

Root stepped forward almost immediately to examine the ashes, as did Daniel. Shaw had basically had to drag Root away from her notes by her collar, but now she seemed fully focused on this new mystery. Smears of greasy ash joined the ink stains on her palms.

"Definitely fresh human cremains," Daniel said after a moment of poking at the ash. "What's odd is they didn't die recently, possibly before we got here. Perhaps some of the priests?"

"So why burn them now?" Zoe asked from behind him. She hadn't poked around in the ash like the others, but had chosen to examine it from a distance instead.

"We should ask Teacher," Kelli said. "If whoever this was really died before we got here…."

They stood in a strained silence on the chilly balcony while Dani left to fetch Teacher. Greer joined the other necromancers in examining the ashes and Shaw hovered nearby. He probably wouldn't try anything on a crowded terrace, but it paid to be cautious.

Teacher finally showed up and looked at the smoking remains with the same distress on his face that he'd had the night they'd found Fifth House dead.

"No one has died here recently other than the two unfortunates from Fifth House," he said sadly.

"Are their bodies--" Kelli started to ask.

"Both of Fifth are still in the freezer," Dani said with certainty. "First thing I checked."

"Then who could these belong to?" Tomas asked.

Shaw finally spoke up since everyone seemed to be missing the obvious next step. "Maybe we should find Fourth and Seventh."

Finding Fourth proved easy as they ran into them in the pool room when they went back inside. Shaw looked into the clear water of the pool as the others filled in Fourth. She wished she could ignore all of this and go swimming.

None of this shit struck her as worth dying over. If the Emperor was really so hard up for Lyctors, why risk potential ones this way? Sure, he might not have known about the murder spree, but even the tests were dangerous, though more to the cavaliers than the necromancers so far. Did Lyctors even need cavaliers? The original ones must have died thousands of years ago since she'd never heard them mentioned, no doubt not included in their necromancer's claim to immortality.

Someone touched her arm and she looked away to find Root beside her. Behind her the others were all bickering.

"You looked far away," she said. "What's on your mind, Shaw?"

"Just thinking about how crap this all is."

Root smiled at her. "You do have a way with words."

"The only way to end this is to gather all these keys, right?" Carter asked loudly enough that it echoed through the room. All eyes turned to her. "Do we know how many there are total?"

"I would assume Eight," Daniel said. "One for each house besides First."

"And they're all only obtainable through those 'tests' in the facility." Carter looked at each of them in turn. "How many are left?"

"By my count, they've all been acquired now," said Root.

Shaw tried not to gape at her. It explained why she hadn't been in a rush to go back down there, but it would have been nice to have been kept in the loop on that.

"Then the only way for anyone to get more is to take them from the others by force," Kara Stanton said thoughtfully. "Very well, Fourth House challenges Ninth. The time is now but you can choose a different place if you prefer." Her smile was ice cold. "It seems like the obvious move, especially since your cavalier looks half-dead on her feet."

"This is unacceptable," Carter snapped. Dani stood before her, hand on rapier hilt. "If we all turn on each other now then nothing will get resolved."

"It's a fair challenge and I'm within my rights to make it," Kara said, unconcerned. Reese had the slightest of wrinkles on his brow, but he didn't say anything.

"Shaw?" Root asked quietly.

Shaw looked at Kara Stanton's triumphant smile and Reese's quiet acceptance. All eyes were on Ninth House now.

"Yeah," Shaw said. "I got this."

"The Ninth accepts your challenge," Root said in the cold and haughty tone of the Reverend Daughter. "Here will suffice."

Shaw wasn't crazy about fighting on tiles, but it'd put Reese at just as much of a disadvantage as her.

"The only term Fourth demands is necromancer's mercy," Stanton said.

"That means anything goes until one of the necromancers admits defeat," Shaw told Root, unsure if she'd know the formal terms of dueling.

Root pressed her lips together in a thin line and then nodded. "Ninth accepts those terms."

Carter made a disgusted noise but didn't interfere. Shaw saw Tomas looking deeply distressed from besides his necromancer, and somewhere in the chaos Eighth House had snuck off.

Everyone cleared space for the duel. Shaw tugged her robes and her sunglasses off and handed them to Root. She thought maybe Root would tell her to be careful or watch herself, but there was something dangerous in her eyes.

"You need to put him down _hard_ , Shaw. Otherwise we'll have the others lining up to try their luck as well."

"So...kick his ass?"

"Exactly."

Shaw grinned at her. "My pleasure."

She took her place across from Reese. He unslung his spiked buckler from his shoulder and drew his rapier. "John the Fourth."

Shaw drew as well, watching his eyes. "Shaw the Ninth."

Zoe had stepped up to arbitrate the match and she was the one to call out paces. "Turn and begin!"

Shaw had seen Reese fight in a real fight that had been much more informative than her brutally short match against Schiffman, and she'd filed away every move he'd made. Against Dani he'd taken his time and tested out her skills before committing to an attack, but this time he moved in aggressively.

Shaw's boots squeaked on the tiles as she gave ground under his furious assault. She was faster than him without question, but his reach was a problem. And that damned buckler was annoying as hell.

Well, if it was going to be that kind of fight she could play along. Even with her lethargic muscles protesting, her forwards surge towards him was lightning fast. She came in low, using his height against him. Being short could be an advantage when fighting someone used to much taller opponents, and he struggled to block her low strike.

Stanton hadn't set any rules on where they could hit each other which meant she was within bounds to stab him right in the thigh. He brought his buckler down sharply as if to snap her rapier and she retreated, fending off his sword with her knife as she went. First blood to her.

Reese was good, she'd give him that. He didn't make the same mistake twice and her next attempt at a low strike was fended off easily. Oh well, time for Plan B.

A long reach could be a problem for him if she could get inside it, so the next time he aimed a thrust at her she stepped sideways and forwards around it. It wasn't perfect and she felt his blade slice her arm as she passed, but it let her get close to drive her boot hard into his knee. He staggered, thrown off by the physical assault, and she punched him squarely in the throat with her fist. In a fight to the death she would have used her knife, but she had no interest in killing him.

Reese choked and spluttered and she knocked his legs out from under him. She got one foot on his throat to hold him down and the point of her rapier rested over his heart, pressing just hard enough to draw blood.

"Does Fourth House concede?" Root asked from somewhere behind her, voice calm.

There was no response, so Shaw pressed down harder with her foot. Reese's face was red, veins standing out on his forehead.

"Enough," snapped Kara Stanton.

Shaw stepped back immediately and let Reese cough and splutter on the floor.

"Match to Ninth House," Zoe said faintly.

"Well, damn," Dani said from the sidelines. Shaw smirked.

"Your keys," Root said. "Hand them over now."

"Like hell I will," Kara growled.

"Fourth House goes back on their word?" Root scoffed. "Pathetic to the last. Hand them over or we'll come take them from you."

Kara Stanton looked around the room but found not one sympathetic face. She glared and then pulled a keyring from her belt and tossed it on the ground to clatter on the tiles. Apparently she hadn't trusted her own cavalier to hold onto it, Shaw noted as she scooped the keyring up. There was only one key on the ring: the facility key that they already had a copy of. Disappointing, but it still felt good to take it away from Stanton. She tucked it away before offering Reese a hand up from the floor.

"Not bad," he said quietly to her. "We should have a rematch someday, under better circumstances."

"Agreed."

Reese retreated to his necromancer who glared at everyone one last time and then stormed out with Reese reluctantly following after her. Shaw watched them go before she returned to stand in front of Root next to the pool.

"You're bleeding all over the tiles," Root noted. She ripped off a strip of cloth (from Shaw's robes, which was very rude of her) and tied it around Shaw's arm in a way that suggested she had no idea how bandages actually worked. Shaw tolerated the fussing because Root was also looking at her like she was the absolute greatest thing she'd ever seen in her life. She flexed her arm minutely under Root's hands which made the bleeding worse but also got a soft strangled noise from Root reminiscent of the ones Reese had made a few seconds ago but for much better reasons.

"If we're all quite done with this bullshit, then we need to make an actual sane plan now," Carter said. "Any objections?"

There was a babble of overlapping voices as all the remaining necromancers announced that no they were _not_ interested in working together. Shaw rolled her eyes at the lot of them. She waited for the complaining to die down and then raised her voice just enough to carry.

"Seems like we're forgetting something important. Or _someone_ important."

"Seventh House," Root agreed. "They never did show up."

"They can't be the ones in the incinerator though," Daniel pointed out.

"Someone still had to put the bodies in there," Root explained with a withering look, "and so far Seventh House are the only ones who haven't been seen. On its own, that means nothing, but we'd be remiss to not at least confirm their whereabouts."

"Agreed," Carter said.

"Agreed," Zoe said as well.

"I suppose that makes sense," Daniel admitted.

Considering how huge Canaan House was, it only made sense to split up. Second House would go to Seventh's quarters, Third House would look through the lower levels, Sixth would check the upper floors, and Ninth would look in the facility below. Shaw had been confused by Root volunteering them for what was undoubtedly the most dangerous location, but she kept her peace until they'd left the others behind.

"You really think they're down there?" she asked as they swept through the ruined hallways. The damp weather outside made everything smell like mildew.

"There are only two places Seventh could be that would be remotely of interest: the facility, or one of the locked rooms. If they're in a locked room, we'll never find them. If they're in the facility, where they are and what they're doing could be informative."

"All the keys are accounted for though, and even if they don't know that, there's nothing we can still get down there." She'd been hoping they were done with that place. "If you want the keys to the other rooms, we're either going to have to cooperate with the others or fight them all."

"I'd prefer the latter." Root glanced sideways at her. "How's your arm?"

The bleeding had mostly stopped, but Shaw wanted to clean and tend the wound properly. "I can still fight just fine if that's what you mean."

"Good, it may come to that."

A faint noise from ahead caught both of their attention. As they drew nearer to the stairs down to the hatch, the noise grew louder: a repetitive banging. Shaw drew her rapier and went down the stairs first. At the bottom, Martine sat on the ground next to the closed hatch. She had a mallet in her hand and had wedged something under the edge of the hatch door which she was striking with the mallet in an attempt to break the lock. She looked up when they approached and her eyes narrowed.

"Lose your keys?" Shaw asked.

"Something like that. What did you two want?"

"Second found two more bodies," Shaw said. "Sort of." She gave a brief summary of the ashes in the incinerator, watching Martine for any reaction.

"Well, that's grim," Martine said when she finished, "but it's hardly of any interest to me what the crazy old priests do with their dead."

"Is Duchess Corwin down there?" Root asked.

"Duchess Corwin has a bad tendency to wander off despite the limitations of her health," Martine said bitterly. "This would be the most likely place for her to have gone, but unfortunately she has our only copy of the key."

And no House would want to ask another for help, especially now that all the keys were in play.

"We could unlock it for you," Root offered, "for the right incentive of course."

"How selfless of you, Ninth." Martine rose and brushed herself off. "I'm afraid I'll have to pass on your generous offer though. I'm not authorized to make deals for Duchess Corwin."

"Even if she might be in danger?" Shaw asked.

"Duchess Corwin is in a permanent state of danger and has been her entire life. You'd do well not to underestimate her."

"And yet here you are trying to break in as if her life depended on it," Root mused.

"Well, I'm her cavalier, so naturally. If your own cavalier wouldn't do the same then you should invest in a new one."

By all rights it should have been Shaw who stepped forwards, angry and ready to fight, and Root who held her back, and yet Root was the one to try and advance on Martine and it was Shaw's hand on her arm that stopped her. Root pulled against her for a second before relaxing. Shaw could see her hand was in her pocket which meant Martine had been about ten seconds away from getting mobbed by a horde of skeletons.

"We're leaving now," Root said. She turned on her heel and swept back up the stairs in a swirl of black robes. Shaw backed up the stairs after her, keeping Martine in her sight until she turned the corner.

"Change of plans then?" Shaw asked as she followed Root across the lobby. She pointedly refrained from saying anything about how there was another necromancer who'd run off without her cavalier and ended up half dead in the facility below.

"We've wasted enough time dealing with Seventh House," Root said, anger still in her voice. "I need to return to my notes."

"Should we tell the others? About Seventh, I mean."

"You can if you wish."

The fury in Root's voice was something Shaw had never heard from her before. Not like this anyway. She didn't think it was aimed at her, and she didn't see how Martine's jab would have resulted in so strong a reaction from someone as used to acting as Root. No, there was something else going on, something Root was keeping from her.

"It would help if you told me who it was you wanted to murder right now," Shaw remarked as they made their way back. "And why. There seems to be a running list of things you're not telling me despite the fact I've let you drain my life and been stabbed for you now."

"Someone," Root said grimly, "is pulling the strings in a very intricate puppet show and I'm no closer to discovering who or what their motivation is than I was the day we arrived."

"Care to elaborate?" She opened the door to their rooms and motioned for Root to go in.

Root hesitated and Shaw thought maybe she almost cracked, but then she just said, "No, not now," and entered the room, leaving Shaw to curse in the hall.

Root was true to her word about returning to her notes and Shaw left her to it. She got the paltry cache of medical supplies she kept in her bag out and went to the bathroom to deal with her exciting new stab wound. Pulling away the cloth Root had wrapped around it caused the wound to start bleeding again and there was blood spread over a good part of the sink before she was done cleaning it. Root popped her head in while Shaw was taking out clean bandaging.

"Need a hand?" She held up a skeletal hand that was still attached to an arm bone.

"You're hilarious. Come hold this. With your _own_ hand. Put that one down."

Root's earlier mood seemed to have passed now and she was all smiles and teasing again as she helped Shaw secure the bandages.

"I might be able to fix it," she said, "but flesh magic has never been a Ninth House favorite."

"I'd rather take my chances with infection and gangrene, thanks." She taped the end of the cloth bandage down and examined her work critically. It hadn't been a bad wound, but it might slow her down and that was something she couldn't afford if they really had to fight their way through all the Houses for their keys. "Since you're not going to let me in on whatever the hell happened back there, can you at least tell me what our next move is?"

"Shaw--"

"You know what? Fine. It's none of my business anyway."

"We're going to challenge one of the other houses," Root said calmly, "but what I was going to say is that there are some secrets that go beyond what's happening inside Canaan House and...if a time comes when I can tell you, I will."

"Oh." That had been a far more reasonable answer than she'd expected.

"And I should have told you about the keys."

"You should have."

"Will you accept my apology?"

Shaw's clever response died on her tongue when she looked up at Root. Root's eyes were hooded and dark and her lips were slightly parted. She raised one hand to cup Shaw's jaw and even though every rational part of Shaw's mind told her to get out of there immediately, she stayed frozen in place and made no move to stop Root from leaning in.

Root's lips brushed against hers tentatively once and for a second Shaw was convinced she'd been right all along and this was a horrible mistake, but then Root bit her lip hard enough to split it and pressed their mouths together roughly. Now that was more like it. Root tasted like blood and paint and Shaw pushed her back into the bathroom wall without breaking the kiss. There were so many reasons this was a bad idea, maybe even more than last time, but she found that she currently did not give a single fuck.

She had the cloth belt of Root's robes undone before Root finally pushed her away.

"I think that's enough apologizing for now," Root murmured. "But we should definitely revisit this later." She slipped out from between Shaw's arms and ducked out of the bathroom, leaving Shaw alone with a bleeding lip and more confused than ever. She'd never expected _Root_ to be the one to break things off.

When she got out into the bedroom, Root was nowhere to be found. A search of their rooms revealed that she'd definitely left. Shaw patted her pocket and cursed. The damn keyring. Root had only been after the keys. She must be going back to the facility to track down Corwin.

Shaw almost went after her. Almost. But Root had stolen the keys--in the rudest way possible--and Shaw was far more pissed about that than she wanted to be and there was no way she was going to sit outside the hatch and try to pry it open to save Root from her own stupidity this time. She went to take a much-needed nap instead (she still felt the lingering effects from the siphoning) and ended up sleeping far longer than she intended. When she awoke it was full dark out and Root was asleep in her own bed as if she'd never been gone.


	11. The Construct

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on holiday from work for the rest of the year so hopefully I can post a little more quickly for the next few weeks.

Martine found them all in the dining room the next morning.

"Duchess Corwin is missing."

Shaw didn't even look up from her soup.

"She wasn't in the basement then?" Daniel asked from a nearby table. Kelli looked like she disapproved of something and Shaw wondered if Sixth had been the ones to let Martine through the hatch. Daniel had always been too nice for his own good.

"There was no sign of her there or anywhere else." Martine had finally lost that smug look she always had. There were dark circles under her eyes.

Carter rose from her own table and her cavalier mirrored her. "Tell us everything about when you last saw her."

"Two mornings ago. She left our quarters before I was awake and I haven't seen her since," Martine said. "There's nothing more to tell."

"Before we found the bodies then," said Kara Stanton.

She and Reese were the last two at breakfast. Third hadn't made an appearance, and Root had been gone again when Shaw had woken up. The keyring with its two keys had been hanging on a bone next to the door to her room with a note attached to it that said: 'I hope you'll find this humerus.' She'd resisted the urge to throw all of Root's clothes into the ocean, but had still taken the keys.

"I'm not sure I like what you're implying," Martine said, her hand falling to her rapier hilt.

"That's your problem," Stanton retorted.

"This gets us nowhere," Carter interjected. "We need to get backup here before this gets worse."

"I didn't think we could do that," Daniel pointed out. "Teacher said--"

"There's got to be a way to communicate with someone off the planet," Carter insisted. She shared a nod with her cavalier and the two filed out of the room in silence.

"Well that should end well," Kara said dryly.

"I'm offering access to the rooms my keys unlock to whoever finds the Duchess," Martine announced.

That got everyone's attention, including Shaw's. Martine had changed her tune since yesterday.

"Corwin has your keys though," she objected.

"And when we find her, she'll honor my bargain even if she won't be pleased with it."

Shaw pushed her bowl away and stood. "Okay, I'm game." She wasn't going to sit around and wait for Root to continue to parcel out bits and pieces of information. If Root wouldn't tell her what was going on then she'd find out herself.

"We will as well," Kara said.

"And us," Daniel said without enthusiasm.

"The facility is still the most likely place she'd be," Shaw said. "I'll look there."

"We'll stick to searching places that are slightly less of a death trap," Kara said. "But you have fun."

Kelli leaned across the table, and whispered something to Daniel. He nodded and rose. "We'll go with you, Shaw."

"I did already look down there," Martine said, "but perhaps a necromancer could find something I missed." She looked them over with evident distaste. "I suppose I'll accompany you down there as well."

"Oh great," Shaw muttered under her breath. At least it would be entertaining.

She had hoped to avoid Martine on the walk to the hatch, but with the Sixth House pair walking side by side she ended up next to her.

"That's new," Martine said.

Shaw followed her gaze down to the rapier at her hip. "Yeah, decided to upgrade."

"Did you find it somewhere here?"

"My necromancer gave it to me." She was pissed at Root, but not enough to tell Martine about the Second House room. She wasn't going to break _her_ word just because Root had tricked her.

"That was generous of her," was all Martine said. She remained silent the rest of the trip.

Kelli unlocked the hatch and they all went down the ladder one at a time. The hallway below was as cold as ever and the lights were harsh and glaring.

"Do we split up?" Martine asked. "Two and two?"

"I think we should stick together," Daniel said. "If there's something still down here that killed Fifth House, we'll stand a better chance together."

They set off down the corridor, boots echoing on metal grilles and lights clicking on and off to mark their progress. It was creepier down here today and she found herself wishing Root was here.

"I hate this place." Kelli had joined her at the back of the group, leaving Martine and Daniel to talk. "There's something off about it beyond all the weird stuff in the labs."

"Agreed. This place sucks."

Kelli chewed her lip as if nervous. "I'm glad you recovered from that last challenge."

"I've had worse," said Shaw who was fairly sure she hadn't.

"And I'm sorry if we overstepped. Then or before."

"Not a big deal." Though the apology soothed some small splinter of anger she'd still had.

"Regardless, I'm sorry."

Shaw was spared from answering by their arrival at the room called Sanitiser, the place she'd found Root the first time she'd been down here. They entered the room in a cluster and Daniel hit the wall switch for the lights.

The long room with its cubicles appeared empty, but everyone took their time looking over the area anyway. Daniel and Kelli seemed jumpier than Shaw had ever seen them before, and even Martine looked nervous.

"Nothing here," Daniel said when they returned to the door. "But there's something about this place…."

"Maybe we should leave," Kelli suggested. "If there's really something dangerous down here, there's no point in us all dying to find one necromancer who's half dead already." ("It's true, but she shouldn't say it," Shaw murmured under her breath).

Martine's sharp gaze turned on Kelli and Kelli took half a step back from the force of it.

"Let's try another room," Shaw said. Watching two cavaliers brawl would have sounded fun if they'd been anywhere other than here.

The lights in the room turned off as they left and the motion-activated lights of the hall sprang to life. The lights turned on one by one as they walked as if leading them back to the main junction room. They all stopped when they got there to consider the other hallways. While the others debated on their next move, Shaw watched the lights in the hallway they'd come from turn off one by one until their room was the last isolated pool of light.

"Something's wrong." Daniel walked the perimeter of the room, peering down each corridor.

A light flickered back to life on its own in the corridor Shaw was next to, starkly illuminating the walls and--

"Uh, guys," Shaw said.

"Maybe something broke out of one of the labs?" Daniel suggested.

"Guys," Shaw said again more loudly. She pointed at the wall.

There painted on the wall in blood so fresh it was still dripping were enormous letters that spelled out the words:

DEATH TO SIXTH HOUSE

"Oh fuck," someone said and Shaw silently agreed.

It came out of the shadows of the hallway, forming out of nothing. Huge eye sockets glowed green in the dark and hundreds of bony tentacles writhed all around the most massive bone construct Shaw had ever seen. It was much larger than the one she'd fight in Imaging and Response and moved towards them at a slow, inevitable pace. It was hunched down to fit in the hall, but straightened out as it reached the room, towering over them. The lights overhead all went out.

Shaw assessed their chances. "We need to get out of here." She backed towards the hall leading towards the ladder, but Daniel and Kelli stepped past her, towards the monster. Even Martine had her weapon out as she stared up at the thing, eyes slightly too wide.

A glowing ward sprang to life on the floor in front of the construct--Daniel's doing--and the monster paused and swatted at the invisible barrier, pieces of bone crumbling away when they hit it. Daniel threw a fistfull of what Shaw thought might be his own blood at the creature and whatever it was exploded on contact, taking out chunks of bone.

The construct wobbled...and then regenerated instantly.

Shaw had her rapier out, but stayed back. This part of the fight was the necromancer's. If it got through the ward, then she'd be ready. And it looked like that was becoming a real possibility as the construct stepped forwards _into_ the ward, regenerating even as it was ripped apart.

They needed a bone expert here. They needed Root. But Root had fucked off to who knew where and that meant Shaw had to do without her.

She was ready when the tentacle-like arms came at them. Her rapier sliced through one neatly even as she ducked under another. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Kelli fighting as well. Damned idiotic of her; this wasn't the type of fight she was trained for. She caught occasional glimpses of Martine, ducking and weaving through the net of bones, far more light on her feet than Shaw would have imagined. There was a chain in her left hand--confirming Shaw's original guess about her off-hand weapon--but it didn't look like she had much use for it against this monster.

Daniel was doing...something. Blue light flashed through the room and shards of bone flew through the air. Shaw thought the wound on her arm might be bleeding again, but she was fully committed to the battle now so that hardly mattered. She cut and sliced and stabbed and beat back the arms of the monster.

"We need to get the fuck out of here!" she yelled at the others, but not no response. Daniel had a funnel of blue light building in front of him and blood sweat pouring down his face. The construct was regenerating still, but slower, and for a second Shaw thought they might have a chance.

And then the construct drew back its arms and then shot them all forwards in a large spike that punched directly through Kelli's chest.

Daniel screamed, something between rage and grief, and for a moment the light in front of him grew brighter, but then a single bone whip struck him, piercing right through his arm and his magic faded. Martine--closer to him than Shaw--sliced the bone away and stood in front of him, facing the construct.

As Shaw reached them, Martine stepped towards the monster skeleton, her rapier flashing around her so fast it was a blur. Shaw hauled Daniel up from the floor and pushed him towards the hallway that led to the ladder.

"Go."

Daniel looked frozen with shock and Shaw had to shove him again before he took a halting step forwards. They were severely outclassed here and all of them were going to die in the next ten seconds if they stayed. They needed more necromancers.

Behind her, the whispered rattle of bones paused for a long second, and, as Shaw turned back, nearly fifty long tentacle bone arms shot out and ran Martine through. The arms retracted, and Martine slumped to the floor in a pool of blood, her dead eyes staring blankly at the ceiling.

Shaw grabbed Daniel by the collar and took off at an all out run down the hallway. The lights didn't activate above her and she charged blindly into the darkness, relying on her memory to take her to the ladder.

She could hear sounds from behind her, but she ignored them and groped for the metal rungs. Daniel yanked against her grip as if he planned to run back and attack the thing that had killed his cavalier. Shaw considered their limited options and then spun Daniel around and slugged him. Daniel slumped and Shaw threw him over her shoulder and scrambled up the ladder faster than she'd thought was possible. She dumped Daniel on the ground only long enough to lock the hatch behind them and then hauled him up again and took off up the stairs into the lobby, dragging the near-catatonic necromancer behind her.

There was no way the hatch door could hold a monster that size, and she wasn't willing to bet their lives that it couldn't leave for other reasons. She needed help, and fast, but she didn't know where a single other person was right now. Fine. Somewhere safe then. A place to regroup until she could figure out what the fuck to do next. She set off to the most secure place she could think of.

The hidden door under the stairs by the pool opened for her key and she slammed it behind her. The door was heavy iron, damn near impenetrable. Hopefully.

She led Daniel up the short flight of stairs and deposited him in one of the beds before returning to the main floor to drag furniture in front of the door. Didn't hurt to be too careful.

Daniel hadn't moved when she got back, still sitting on the edge of the bed, staring numbly into space. Definitely in shock, Shaw decided.

She went up to stand near the bed, uncertain what to do. The bond between a necromancer and cavalier ran deep, often more important to them than any other relationship in their lives. And Daniel had just watched his cavalier die violently. She tried to imagine what it would be like to see Root die like that, but her mind shied away from the image. It wasn't the same. She didn't feel things like Daniel did and she wasn't even a real cavalier.

"That thing down there," Daniel said at last. "Someone must have been controlling it. Who?" He didn't sound fully there which was probably for the best right now (if for no other reason than that Root was going to be majorly pissed that she'd brought him here specifically, but what choice had she had?).

"No clue." No one had been controlling the construct in the challenge, but that had felt like a contained experiment, set up long ago and only working within certain parameters. This new construct had been something else entirely.

"It has to be a necromancer. One of us." Daniel's voice was flat. "How many are left? Greer, Zoe, Carter, Kara, and the Reverend Daughter, of course. The bone adept."

Shaw saw where this was going. "Root can be a dick, but she wouldn't do this. Not her style." There was some tiny sliver of doubt there though. Logically Root was the one most likely to be able to make something like that construct. Shaw pushed the thought away. "You forgot Alicia Corwin. We still don't know what happened to her. She could be acting from the shadows."

"What necromancer would kill their own cavalier?" Daniel asked, his voice still hollow.

"Maybe one who vanishes for days at a time and leaves their cavalier in the dark," she said a little bitterly. She wanted very badly for this to have been Greer's fault, but skeletons weren't Eighth House's thing. More likely he'd have condemned it as a heresy. "We're going to stay here for now. Maybe you should lie down." The blank look on Daniel's face was creeping her out.

"Yes, I think I'll do that."

"Wait." In all the chaos, Shaw had forgotten how the construct had skewered Daniel's arm. Her medical kit was back in her room, so she did her best with some strips of cloth torn from a sheet. Daniel probably could have healed it on his own normally, but she could tell he was completely useless for the time being. He sat passively while his arm was bandaged and then lay back on the bed after.

Shaw sat in the armchair nearby to keep an eye on him.

"Shaw?"

"Yeah?"

"Promise me we'll kill whoever did this. Slowly."

"Oh, I can absolutely promise that." She had a feeling she was going to be very angry later once she'd had time to think more.

"Thank you."

Shaw had thought she'd been recovered from the siphoning trial, and maybe she was and the exhaustion in her bones was from the fight, but either way she found herself shutting her eyes. Only for a moment, she told herself.

She had no idea how much time had passed when she woke up, and it was the furthest thing from her mind due to the sight that met her when she opened her eyes.

Daniel was still on the bed, but an enormous spear of bone had pierced right through his chest. His lifeless eyes stared blankly at the ceiling, and blood was sprayed everywhere. Shaw's eyes followed the trail of blood up to the wall above the bed where giant words had been scrawled just like the ones in the facility earlier. The blood red letters spelled out:

SWEET DREAMS

* * *

Daniel's body was taken to lie with the others in the freezer room, and the surviving Houses (minus Eighth who could not be found) gathered in the dining hall.

Shaw sat silently while Root drew the many tiny shards of bone out of her skin. She'd given her report on what had happened in the facility and after calmly enough that some of the others had looked at her oddly. She was used to that though. Her detachment had been the reason so many of Sixth House had been easily willing to believe she'd kill her friend. At least now that she was done relating the news, everyone was leaving her alone. Even Root hadn't tried to start a conversation beyond telling her to hold still.

Everyone else was talking more than enough.

"We need to go down and recover their bodies," Carter was saying.

"Fuck that." Kara looked adamant. "If this thing took down a necromancer and two cavaliers--almost three--then there's no way I'm going anywhere near it."

She'd known they were all down in the facility, Shaw noted. That wasn't definitive evidence in itself, but she was keeping a tally. She needed to be sure. And then….

"The fact it killed Daniel in a room above the facility means we're not safe anywhere," Zoe pointed out. "It could get anywhere. It could kill us in our beds at night."

Zoe was the second least likely suspect. Probably not powerful enough, especially when it came to bones.

"No need to be dramatic," Dani said in disgust. "Second will go down there if Fourth are too scared."

Carter was probably the lowest on Shaw's list of suspects, but that didn't mean she was cleared either.

Carter turned to Shaw. "Was there any sign of Corwin?"

"No." Which meant she was still on Shaw's list.

Root's hands paused for a fraction of a moment mid-bone fragment extraction.

Bones. They were her specialty after all. And where had she been during all this? And why had Shaw been spared?

"Are you up to helping us recover the bodies?" Carter asked.

"She shouldn't have to go back down there," Tomas objected.

"I'll go," Shaw said flatly. "It'll take a few of us to get them up the ladder." She stood up brushing away Root's hands.

They all went in the end, no one eager to split up just yet. Shaw brought up the rear of the group and Root walked by her side in blessed silence.

Once they all reached the bottom, Shaw took the lead--even though there was only one path--and headed for the junction room.

It was empty. There was no doubt a fight had happened since blood was sprayed all over everything, but not a single piece of bone remained and both bodies were gone.

"Troubling," Kara said a touch sarcastically.

"We should search the rest of this place." It was the first thing Reese had said. "If their bodies were moved, the location they were taken to might tell us something."

"Not yet." Zoe had stooped to examine the blood. "It's possible there's more here to learn."

In short order, the necromancers were all fussing over the blood spatters. Shaw stood in the entrance to the hallway the construct had emerged from and looked into the dark depths. Someone had been controlling it; she was positive. Someone or something.

"Are you okay?" Tomas asked from nearby.

"Peachy."

"You've been extra quiet, even for you."

Everything in her was a quiet focus now, intent on a single goal. This thing had come after her house, her house specifically, and even if she hadn't been friends with Daniel and had only vaguely been close to Kelli, their deaths and the sadistic writing on the walls had made this personal. She couldn't afford to be distracted, and eliminating the threat also would let her get what revenge she could. So that worked out nicely.

"You should keep an eye out for trouble," she said. After a minute she heard him walk away.

She'd hoped the others would take the hint, but Reese stepped up besides her next.

"Do you know which one of them did it?" he asked bluntly.

"Not yet."

"When you find out, I want in on the fight."

"Noted." She might not have asked earlier, but… "And if it's Kara?"

"It isn't, but I'd still want to know." He almost sounded convinced. "She thinks it's Eighth."

"Why?" They were at the top of her list as well, but she could admit she might be biased.

"She's never liked Eighth House in general and she dislikes Greer specifically. I think they may have met before."

"That's enough to make anyone dislike him."

"Agreed."

He left her alone after that, but their short exchange had eased the tension in her shoulders a fraction.

"There's nothing more here," Carter announced at last.

"I don't think it's wise to stay down here longer," Root said. "Eighth House has been unaccounted for all this time, and if they're behind this…."

"Finally someone talks sense," said Kara.

"I think we're finished down here as well," Zoe agreed. "We'll find them, but...maybe we should wait until we know more."

Carter looked like she might argue, but in the end she was with them as they climbed back out.

"We're returning to our quarters so I can finish taking care of my cavalier," Root said when the hatch was locked. "You can find us there if something new occurs."

None of the others objected, and Root departed with Shaw trailing behind her.

"Is there anything else I should know?" Root asked once they were out of earshot.

"Funny, I thought that was my question."

Root's eyebrows shot up. "You think I had something to do with this?"

"No. Maybe. How the fuck should I know?"

"I had nothing to do with this, Shaw. I promise." Root sighed. "I'd ask you to trust me, but…."

She didn't need to finish the sentence.

When they arrived back at their rooms, Shaw opened the door but didn't follow Root in.

"I'm going for a walk. I'll be back when I'm back." Let Root chew on that.

"I'm not sure that's--"

Shaw shut the door on her face and left, taking pleasure in the pettiness of it. She wandered the halls without direction, half hoping that the construct would reappear so she could take it apart a piece at a time. She didn't do grief, or mourning, but she did anger and she did revenge and she could be patient about them if she had to.

"You."

Shaw drew her rapier at the call and spun to face Jeremy Lambert.

"Greer wants to talk to you. Now."

Normally she wouldn't have wanted to talk to Greer, but today she wanted to get a look at him. He was tied for first on her list of suspects. Maybe he'd show his hand and she could have the satisfaction of killing him.

"Where?"

"This way."

She put her rapier away, but rested her hand on it as they walked.

"You two missed all the excitement," she said. Lambert wasn't the brains of the operation by a long shot. He might spill something.

"So we heard. The rather unpleasant Second House necromancer tried to interrogate us already."

"What did you tell her?"

"The truth. We were collecting on the rewards of a job well done."

Eighth House had a key. So if she still had one, and Seventh had the one Root had given her, who had the rest? Eight Houses, Eight keys. Daniel's keyring had had two keys on it back when he'd unlocked the hatch for her, so that was possibly one more accounted for. Which left four unaccounted for. Root might know who had the rest, but it was very doubtful she'd tell Shaw.

She'd expected to get taken to the Eighth House quarters, but instead Lambert brought her to a ruined room near the center of the building.

"Neutral ground," Greer said as he stepped from the shadows. "A courtesy I would not have offered someone truly from Ninth House, but I suspect your tenuous tether to them has frayed."

Shaw said nothing and didn't budge from her spot near the door. Nothing about Greer's spotless white robes suggested that he'd been running around the facility summoning monsters, but he would have had plenty of time to clean up.

"The little bone witch is the most likely among us to have been able to create the construct that Second described to me," Greer continued. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"What did you want?"

"Ninth's treachery doesn't begin here either and goes beyond the Reverend Daughter. Did you ever wonder why everyone in the Ninth House is old? Where did all the children go?"

The flu that had wiped out two hundred children before Root was born was one of those things covered under Ninth House secrets she wasn't supposed to share. It had been caused by a bacteria in the vents that had spread out into the nursery and the schoolroom and killed everyone under the age of nineteen. The fact that Ninth House was well and truly doomed and would all die out without a younger generation to help repopulate was something they definitely didn't want getting out. How the hell did Greer know about it?

"A cousin of mine married into Ninth House some time ago," Greer said as if sensing her confusion. "I know all their secrets, which is why I also know that there was no flu that killed off the children."

"Does this have a point? I'm getting bored."

"It doesn't strike you as odd that a bacteria would kill every single child, including healthy teenagers, and not a single adult?"

She vaguely recalled there might have been one adult who had died, but still. Greer wasn't wrong. It _was_ weird, and she'd thought it was weird when she'd first heard about it. She'd wondered if maybe someone determined to wipe out Ninth House had poisoned all of the children, but if that had been their goal, why stop at the children?

"What are you implying?" she asked despite herself.

Greer's creased face stretched into a horrible smile. "Perhaps you should ask her. I think that perhaps the Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House is not who you think she is. Or what you think she is."

"Is that the only reason you brought me here? To spout meaningless bullshit?" It could have been him--he could have summoned the construct. She really, really wanted it to be him so badly that she tightened her grip on her sheathed rapier hilt until her knuckles ached. One clean thrust, right through the heart and it would be over.

"You barely look injured at all," Greer said instead of answering. "In a fight that claimed three lives, you walked away with some cuts and bruises."

Lambert jerked up straight from his slouch. "Master, I can still win this," he said, voice desperate and he had drawn his sidearm: a dagger with jagged teeth. A sword breaker was kind of a dick weapon which made it quite fitting for him.

"Be still, Brother Lambert."

"But I can--"

"I said be still!"

Lambert's expression turned sour and he slumped back against the wall petulantly.

Shaw eased her rapier just an inch out of its sheath. The entire meeting made a lot more sense now. If your cavalier was subpar, then the best time to issue a challenge was when another cavalier was injured.

"Sorry to burst your bubble, Greer, but I could beat the snot out of junior here from my death bed." She backed into the doorway. If Greer himself decided to attack her, things could get bad, though some part of her longed for the excuse to try and gut him.

"Yes, well, we may be at an impasse for now, but do keep what I told you in mind."

"Stay the hell away from me. And Root." She backed the last step out of the room and hurried away down the hall, ears listening for any sign of pursuit. No one followed her and she didn't see anyone other than an occasional white-robed skeleton servant as she walked. There was absolutely nowhere for her to go so she wandered blindly until her feet took her out onto a balcony she'd never been to before.

It was full dark out and the endless black of night stretched away forever in front of her, the silence broken only by the soft roar of the ocean below. She sat where the wall met the railing so she could look out over into the dark without putting her back to the door.

It was likely that Greer had been trying to drive a wedge between her and Root (a wedge that was already well in the making though through none of his doing) and that his insinuations about all the dead children of Ninth House were nothing, but there were too many things that didn't add up about it for her to be confident. The strangest part of it though was why he'd choose an event that had happened nearly a year before Root had even been born to try and cast suspicion on her. No, there was something else going on there, but she had no reason to believe Root would answer her if she asked, and even if she did, could Shaw trust her answer?

She stayed out in the night air for over an hour before she finally decided it was time to sleep. The only stop she made on her way back to her rooms was to the kitchen to steal some bread to eat. Outside the kitchen she almost ran right into a wiry figure in a white tunic who was coming up the stairs from the freezer room.

"Late night autopsy, Teacher?"

"Oh, Shaw the Ninth." Teacher looked tired. "I heard about what happened earlier and as the head of the priests of Canaan House…." He shook his head sadly. "The Emperor did not mean for this to happen, of that I am sure."

"Well then maybe you should tell him that it's time to end this disaster before more people die."

"Second House would agree with you, but I'm afraid calling the Emperor here is the last thing I would do. He cannot come back to this place. Ever."

"Why not?"

Teacher patted her on the arm. "I think you should get some sleep, Shaw the Ninth. I gravely fear what may still come to pass here."

She chewed on her hunk of bread while she watched him leave. Just one more person who was hiding things. Were all these secrets really worth dying for?

The rooms were dark when she let herself in, but she heard the sheets on the bed rustle almost instantly.

"Shaw?" From the rough sound of Root's voice she must have been asleep, which maybe was why Shaw could hear a hint of fear there that normally she would have suppressed.

"Go back to sleep." She crossed the room in the dark to the door to her room.

"I thought you might not come back."

Shaw hesitated. Her anger had faded out on that dark balcony and left her drained. "Where else would I go?" She sighed and pushed the door open. "Go back to sleep, Root. We can talk in the morning."

"I'd like that."

Shaw went into her room and shut the door behind her.


	12. The Pool

Shaw woke up to the sound of someone knocking on the door. It was too distant a sound to be the door to the room she slept in which meant that someone was out in the hall knocking on the main door to their suite of rooms. She grabbed her knife and went to investigate.

Out in the main room, she found Root had gotten there first and was eyeing their visitors coldly across the threshold. Root had been up long enough that her black robes and face paint were already taken care of, but she still looked sloppy next to the crisp scarlet uniforms of Second House.

"It's the smart thing to do," Carter said to Root as Shaw entered the room. "What other options do we have?"

"There are always other options," Root replied coolly. "Good morning, Shaw."

"What do you two want?" Shaw asked with a yawn. She didn't feel physically drained anymore, but she could definitely use a few more hours of sleep, and she'd just become painfully aware of the fact her whole body was still covered in tiny stinging cuts from the bone fragments yesterday.

"An alliance," Carter said. "Or a truce even."

"Sounds like a good offer to me," Shaw said. "You should take it, Root."

Root shot her an annoyed look. "What exactly did you have in mind?" she asked Carter.

"Can we come in?"

Root glowered at them, putting the full gloomy weight of her Ninth House presence to work. Shaw rolled her eyes.

"Let them in. If they try anything, I'll kill them, okay?"

"You're barely even dressed and armed only with a knife," Dani Silva said in disbelief. "You think you can take down two Cohort officers in that condition?"

"You're right. I'll put my knife down first to make it a fair fight." Okay, so maybe she was a bit grumpy. After the day she'd had yesterday, she felt she deserved it.

"Come in," Root said, and stepped aside to let them enter.

Second House took in the maudlin decorations with bewildered expressions. Root had only added more bones and skulls to accent the furniture and line the walls since she got here. Anyone who got on her bad side would likely find themselves beset upon by an army of skeletons.

They all ended up sitting around the table: Shaw and Root on one side, and Carter and Dani on the other.

"We have two keys," Carter said. "And so do you."

Root looked unsurprised. "I'm aware." She didn't clarify that they only had one key now after she'd given Seventh the other key, Shaw noted. Good to know she wasn't the only person Root kept stuff from.

"That means between us we have half the keys. Eighth has one, Seventh has one, and Sixth had one."

"No one found Sixth's keys then?"

"We were going to ask _her_ that." Dani jerked her chin at Shaw. "Daniel didn't have any on him in the freezer, and if anyone had a chance to get the keys it would have been Shaw."

"I didn't search him." Though she should have. "If he didn't have the keys then Kelli must have. Makes sense since cavaliers got the rings and Daniel always played by the rules."

Carter looked grim. "That's another one lost for now then."

"Unfortunate, but what does this have to do with us?" Root asked.

"There's Eight keys. One for each of the nine Houses minus First House. Getting all of them is important to understanding what's going on here and finding a way off this world."

"And what do you think having all the keys will reveal?"

"Something hidden in this place, and maybe a way to contact the outside world. There's got to be a way to get out of here once you're qualified to be a Lyctor or this whole thing would be pointless."

Root drummed her fingers on the table. "I think you're wrong about that, Captain. The part about a hidden place here. I think the theorems in each room are the important part. Pieces of a puzzle."

"Some kind of megatheorem? I guess that's possible, but the end point remains the same: a way out of here and maybe some answers."

"What if the deaths here have nothing to do with the whole quest to become a Lyctor?" Shaw asked. "What if it's unrelated?" The others all turned to her, expecting more. "I ran into Teacher last night, and I got the impression that things have gone significantly off track from what the Emperor anticipated. Could be someone set out to sabotage this whole thing."

"An enemy of the Empire?" Carter's frown deepened. "Most of them disapprove of necromancy, and whoever did this was definitely a necromancer."

"We're getting away from the point," Root said. "The point is you want to exchange keys."

"Or notes. And there's something I wanted you to come have a look at."

Shaw put on more clothing before they ventured out into Canaan House. Carter led them to a hallway Shaw somehow hadn't been to yet. A large painting hung on one wall, doing a poor job of concealing the door behind it. Once Dani and Shaw had wrestled the painting off, the door proved to look almost identical to the hidden one beneath the stairs. Another key door then.

"Check the lock," Carter said.

Root leaned down to examine it. "Someone's gummed it up. They must really not want anyone getting in."

"Can you clear it out?"

Root chewed on her lip as she studied the lock. She prodded the material jamming it with one finger. "This is regenerating ash. Perpetual bone. The same thing that construct in the challenge was made of. Troubling since this wasn't in the lock when we first arrived here."

"Which means someone with the power to make a construct like that also jammed this door."

"And you want me to open it?"

"Can you?"

Root flexed her fingers. "Obviously."

She pinched the end of the goop between two fingers and pulled, though Shaw could tell the actual pulling had more to do with necromancy than force. The white putty stretched out and out as Root grit her teeth. And then it snapped back. Root cursed and tried again. And again. Beads of blood sweat formed on her forehead, mixing with her paint.

"You need more power," Shaw said as she watched. If whoever had done this could have made a construct then that meant it was likely the killer, and they really didn't want anyone getting in there. And if Root couldn't open it unaided she probably couldn't make the construct. Probably. Shaw felt a sense of resignation. "Use me to open it."

Root looked up at her sharply. "I will do no such thing."

"There could be evidence in there. Evidence pointing to whoever it is killing everyone."

"That's not--"

"I'm asking you to."

Root looked torn. "Even if I clear the lock, we still don't have the key."

"Yet. You said you owed me one." There was a chance she could find the key on her own, but no way she could clear the lock.

"This is really not what I meant." Root sighed in frustration. "Fine."

Root only touched her for a second before Shaw felt that horrible tugging sensation that she'd felt in the siphoning trial again. The pain was back as well, but only a faint shadow of what it had been last time. Root pulled at the ash in the lock and this time it came free easily leaving the lock clear.

The pain and sensation retreated leaving Shaw feeling maybe a tad tired, but nothing serious.

Carter looked horrified and Dani, disgusted.

"Second House's specialty is draining people," Root pointed out. "I'm not sure how you're in any position to judge."

"Not our own cavaliers, we don't."

"That's between me and Shaw." Root turned back to the door, signaling that the topic was closed. "Do you know who has this key? It's not one of mine."

"Nor mine. Not Eighth's either."

"We saw them coming out of a room a level down," Dani explained.

"And not Sixth's," Root added.

Everyone stared at her.

"I have their notes," she explained. "They noted which door their key opened, and it wasn't this one."

"Daniel did _not_ give you his notes," Shaw said with absolute certainty.

"Obviously not. I stole them out of Sixth's rooms. And before you get outraged over that, Second, I stole the notes before they died."

"How is that better?" Dani asked.

"Would you rather I have challenged them to a duel and risked both our cavaliers?"

"A duel is honorable! Stealing is--"

"Safer. For everyone. Spare me your moral quibbling. The point is that the key to this door is either the one Seventh had, or…."

"The last key," Shaw said. She'd been keeping count when they'd listed them off earlier and they were short one key. If all the keys had been claimed then someone had it.

"Zoe Morgan doesn't have any keys and neither did Fourth. Alicia Corwin had the Seventh House keys," Carter said. "Martine couldn't open the hatch without them. She could still have the keys, including the one to this door."

"Perhaps." Root looked at the door again. "Five theorems between the two of us. Fine, we can share notes, but only for the ones we already have. I make no promises for the future."

They went to the Second House rooms to compare notes, and, once Root was settled, Shaw excused herself briefly. There was going to be a lot of nerdy necromantic babbling going on and she wanted to go clean up better than she'd had a chance to last night. Root accepted the excuse easily and Shaw left.

Back in their rooms, she used the sonic and changed into clean clothes. She stood in the main bedroom, looking across the mess Root had made of the place. Even without all the bones, there were clothes strewn everywhere and crumpled pieces of flimsy balled up on the floor. She looked at a few of them but they were all written in some code she didn't recognize. Typical.

She wasn't sure what she was looking for, but once she started she kept going, picking through all of Root's drawers and bags. Root had stolen Sixth's notes; what else might she have stashed away?

She finished searching the room and finally stood before the large wardrobe. The inside was mostly full of an assortment of black robes in various states of wear. There were even some piled in an odd heap on the floor of the wardrobe. She looked at the pile for a long moment and then pulled it away to reveal a box. A cold stab of suspicion wormed through her stomach.

She lifted the lid off the box to reveal the perfectly preserved head of Alicia Corwin.

* * *

"Explain."

Shaw dropped her grisly bundle in the middle of the table, sending pieces of flimsy scattering everywhere. Root and Carter both scrambled to grab the pages.

"Shaw, was that necessary?" Root asked, irritated.

Shaw undid the cloth she'd used to hide the head, and let it fall open. "This was in your wardrobe."

"It was," Root admitted, "but that's no reason to be rude. You've gotten all my notes out of order."

"There was an entire human head _in your wardrobe_." Shaw hadn't drawn her knives yet (because she'd brought both of them, ready for a fight), but she was thinking about it.

"Well, skeletons in the closet might have been more fitting for Ninth House, but I worked with what I had. Carter?" Root sounded expectant and far too calm. "How long, do you think?"

Shaw turned to Carter, utterly bewildered.

"Weeks," Carter said. She had one hand resting on top of the head. "How is that possible?"

"Seventh House specializes in preserving corpses and placing souls in stasis," Root explained, poking the head with one finger. "Alicia Corwin was dead long before she arrived here, a preserved body held together by a truly elaborate act of necromancy. The beguiling corpse, I believe it's called, though this is far beyond what I thought was possible."

Root could have done this--Shaw was positive of that--but the timeframe made no sense for that. She would have had to have gone to Seventh House before they came here? Or Seventh House would have come to Ninth? She would have noticed Seventh House showing up at Castle Drearburh, and she definitely would have noticed Root missing for days. None of that made sense.

"But she was with us this whole time," Carter said in horror. "Walking around and talking."

"It was an impressive piece of work," Root agreed. "Though it does explain why she let Martine do so much of the talking for her. The problem is it would have required a necromancer to maintain, and this necromancer is quite dead."

"Martine couldn't have done it?" Shaw asked. She was still reeling a bit from the whole zombie necromancer thing. "Like they couldn't have given her something that let her control Corwin somehow?" For a second she wondered if Martine could have been a necromancer, but necromancers couldn't fight for shit with their atrophied muscles and Martine had moved like a trained cavalier when she'd attacked the construct.

"Nothing that I know of," Root said. "Though I suppose they might have come up with something. More likely there's someone else here who was controlling her."

"But why though?"

"My only guess is that Seventh House's heir died after the summons to Canaan House came, but before she left and they didn't dare let the other houses show up without Seventh being represented. So they sent Martine here with her to…." Root shook her head. "To spy perhaps? Or maybe to assist another House in return for knowledge of Lyctors? I'm not sure."

"And with both of them dead, we can't exactly ask," Carter said. "Where did you find her?"

"Down in the facility the day before the bodies showed up in the incinerator. Whatever theorems were holding her together had frayed to the point that she fell to pieces at the slightest touch. And before you ask, no, she didn't have her keys. Whoever killed her must have taken them."

"Why didn't you tell anyone else?"

"So that I could watch the others and see how they reacted when her body was found. Except it wasn't exactly. I don't know who put it in the incinerator or who the other body in there was."

"Why didn't you tell _me_?" Shaw asked. Every time she thought she'd reached the end of Root's secrets, there were more.

Root finally looked up to meet her eyes. "Because I wasn't sure you'd believe me, and I couldn't prove how long she'd been dead without a second necromancer to verify it for you."

"We went down there looking for her," Shaw said slowly. "None of us would have been down there if we'd known. Unless you wanted us to go down there?"

"Shaw--"

Carter stood up abruptly, drawing all eyes to her. She waited until she had everyone's undivided attention before she turned to Shaw and said, "Root was with me when all of you went down into the facility that day. We were having a disagreement about the best way to handle things here. You've said that she was with you when Fifth House died, and we've already established that Corwin died before any of us got here." She sat back down. "Did you think I would trust her if I wasn't fairly certain she wasn't the killer?"

Shaw looked at the head on the table and didn't say anything. She badly wanted Carter to be right, but she couldn't afford to let her guard down. If Carter was wrong….

Root stood up slowly. "Second, would you excuse us for a moment? I need to talk to my cavalier in private."

Shaw followed her from the room, tension strung through her whole body. She expected Root to duck into a side room or maybe lead them back to their rooms, but instead Root took them on a longer path that led to a stairway down that Shaw was very familiar with. She pushed open the large, dark doors to the pool room and held them for Root to enter.

"Why are we--"

Root pulled a handful of bone chips from her pocket and scattered them across the tiles, each click echoing through the room. From each chip, a skeleton sprang up and moved to form a perimeter around the room, guarding every exit and holding the doors shut.

"What's with the redecorating?" Shaw asked. Did Root mean to trap her here?

Root pulled off her outer-most robe and folded it on a bench. She pulled a few things from her pockets and set them on the robe and then slipped off her shoes.

"Root?"

"In the pool, Shaw." Root walked past her and to the edge of the pool. She looked back over one shoulder. "I'm going to answer all your questions."

A thrill of excitement ran through Shaw. Finally she was going to get answers. She didn't question the weird circumstances, but followed Root's example and took off her outer robe and shoes. Her rapier she left with the piles of clothes, but her knives she placed closer to the pool.

"You still think I could have killed them," Root said, looking at the knives.

"Those are in case whoever did kill them shows up."

That got the first smile that Shaw had seen from her in what felt like forever now. Root stepped off the edge and entered the pool with a splash. She disappeared below the surface for a second and then came up, spluttering, her face paint half gone.

Shaw waited for her to recover before jumping in herself, close enough to make sure Root would get hit by the wave. Her petty victory was somewhat marred by the fact she 1) couldn't swim, and 2) was nearly too short to touch the bottom and had to stand on tip-toes. At least the water was warm, though the salty smell was overwhelming and the little cuts on her body stung like fuck. She edged down towards the shallower end of the pool until she could stand more easily.

"Want to tell me why we're ruining our clothes?" she asked as she wiped water out of her face. Her voice echoed through the room.

Root followed her and stopped a few inches away. "Ninth House has a secret, Shaw."

"Only one?"

Root reached out and pressed a wet finger to her lips. "Hush, I'm about to betray the trust of my House for you."

Shaw hushed.

"We had a rule that we couldn't speak of the secrets of Ninth House unless we were immersed in salt water. There was a pool back at…." She trailed off. "I will at least hold to this tradition even if I break all others."

Shaw stayed silent, her arms treading water to keep herself balanced.

"You can ask me any questions you wish in a moment, but there is one other secret I would confess to first that might help you understand some things. My mother, as you know, is...not one for talking much."

Three years of holding the secret was suddenly too much.

"Yeah, because she's dead," Shaw blurted out.

The way Root's eyes widened in shock was extremely satisfying. "How did you know? How long? And who have you told?"

"I haven't told anyone--" Root breathed out a sigh of relief. "--and I've known since the third day I got there. I was looking around the place and I saw you and your mother in the hall and I thought she was walking kind of oddly and then she just...collapsed."

Root's mother had fallen to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut and Shaw had understood with absolute certainty that she was not alive. Root had vanished inside a door with her mother's body and left Shaw in the awkward position of having just witnessed something she clearly was not supposed to have seen.

"But then she was back out walking around the next day, but once I knew to look for it she never did walk quite right and suddenly her whole 'vow of silence' thing made a lot more sense."

Root still looked completely stunned but she nodded. "I didn't know enough when I preserved her and I only partially managed. A shoddy job compared to whoever was responsible for Alicia Corwin. I was so impressed when I first saw her."

"Wait, you knew the first time you saw her?" That would explain some of the cryptic things Root had said and done regarding Seventh House.

The arrogance returned to Root's face momentarily. "I spent years puppeting my dear dead mother around. I knew what I was looking at."

"And that's why you didn't say anything: you didn't want to explain how you could tell."

"Yes, it could have led to some...awkward questions."

"But why were you even doing that in the first place?" She had spent far too much time trying to reason out why Root would want to control her dead mother.

"My mother's death was, well, it would be disingenuous to simply call it an accident. We were having a...discussion and then she stepped wrong and fell and...it was a long way down. It took me ages to patch her back together into something useful." Root scrubbed more of the paint off her face with her sleeve. "I was fifteen at the time and if word had gotten out that the head of Ninth House had died and her only heir was still a child, we would have ended up being annexed to one of the other Houses. I would have been married off to some Third or Fifth House churl with no say in the matter."

"But once you were older? Why keep up the act?"

"Because I have no intention of ever becoming the last surviving heir of my line. As long as my mother was still alive, I could have her fend off questions of marriage and succession and all of that. I am of the Ninth, and I am bound to the Locked Tomb, but I have no interest in leading the ruined remains of a dying House for the rest of my life."

"What were you going to do then?"

"I...hadn't decided. It was complicated. I didn't want to leave the Tomb, but…" She laughed without humor. "It was very complicated and I was rather stuck until the Emperor sent this summons out and it seemed like maybe there was finally a way out. As a Lyctor I would have more options, the Emperor's ear perhaps, and maybe a way to protect Ninth House and the Tomb without being trapped there forever."

That went a long way to explaining why she was so desperate to succeed here, though Shaw had about a thousand more questions now.

"Was that why you pulled away?" Root asked. "We had gotten on well the first few days, I thought, and then you…. Did you think I'd killed my mother?"

"Kind of," Shaw admitted. "I didn't know what you were up to, but I knew a secret when I saw one and if you knew that I was onto it you'd never let me leave there alive."

Root tilted her head to the side. "But the fact I might have killed her itself didn't bother you?"

Shaw shrugged, her wet shirt pulling uncomfortably across her shoulders. "Wasn't any of my business, and also I _had_ just been banished for killing someone, so, you know…" She shrugged again, looked down at the blue-green water and then up at the ceiling where the light reflected off the water rippled and danced. "Mostly, I just wanted to get out of there."

"I suppose I can't blame you for that." Root ducked her head under the water for a second and came back up with even less face paint. She brushed her wet hair back from her face. "Okay, Shaw, I give you my word as the Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House that I will not impede you in any way should you choose not to return to the Ninth, nor if you do return and choose to leave after, regardless of what secrets of my House you know or share with others. Does that help?"

"Yeah, that helps." And it did. The secret had weighed on her over the years.

Root smiled, pleased. "Good. Now you can ask your questions, Sameen."

The obvious questions about their current situation were momentarily cast aside for an older mystery she'd been reminded of.

"The flu that killed all the kids, that Eighth House necromancer asshole told me there was something else going on."

Root's hollow laugh echoed through the room. "You could say that. My parents had been trying for years to have an heir, a necromantic heir to carry on their line and rule Ninth House. After years of failures they took...a different approach."

Shaw's blood turned to ice in her veins. She wasn't sure what was coming next, but she was sure it was horrible.

"It was nerve gas in the vents, not a flu. Can you imagine the sheer amount of thanergy released by the deaths of two hundred children, Shaw? The power imbued in a child created by that many souls? I was a monster before I was even born, with blood on my hands that I had no part in putting there."

"What the actual fuck," was the only thing Shaw could think to say. "Your parents murdered the future of their House just to carry on their line? What the fuck."

"Their reasoning was that Ninth House was doomed without an heir, at least that's what they told me."

"What they told you…. They told a child that?" The cold, bottomless pit of anger was back, but it had a new target now, albeit a dead one.

"As soon as I was old enough to understand," Root said. "They wanted me to know the sacrifice they made, the weight of responsibility I had to my house."

"That's…." Shaw didn't have a word for what it was. Her own parents had also died while she was young, but they had been nothing but supportive of her: kind but firm. She tried to imagine growing up in the cold and dark of Castle Drearburh with only the souls of two hundred dead children for company, but there was no way she could even begin to.

"If your parents weren't dead already, I'd offer to kill them for you." Sympathy had never been her thing, but revenge she could understand.

"Why?" Root's voice was quiet and small. "I've lied to you, tricked you, used you for my own ends. You owe me nothing."

"True, maybe I should drown you in the pool."

Root's laugh echoed across the water. "You know you'd miss me if I were gone."

Shaw didn't bother to dignify that with a response. "You know, this trip has been pretty terrible--definitely not going on my top vacation spots--but some parts of it have been okay. The parts where we've actually been on the same page."

"We're good at this together," Root agreed, her eyes shining. "We'd be an unstoppable force as a necromancer and cavalier for real." She leaned back for a moment to half-float and stare at the ceiling above them. "It's silly, but I used to imagine what it would have been like if you'd actually been born into Ninth House, if we'd grown up together. You could have actually been my sworn cavalier then."

Shaw studied the peaceful expression on Root's face as she floated in the warm water. There were so many things in her own life she would have gone back and done differently now, but most of those changes only could happen with the benefit of hindsight. It wasn't often that she'd had a real decision point in her life, a moment when she could actually determine her own future.

She pulled her knees up to her chest so she dipped below the surface into the quiet, warm water. When she surfaced, Root had straightened up and was watching her.

"Maybe we should head back now," Root said. She looked regretful, but her eyes were still lit up.

Shaw looked at her and then looked over at her rapier and knives, the only things she had in this world that were really hers. She made up her mind.

"With Daniel dead, there's no guarantee I'd ever be able to go back to Sixth House," she said. Root tried to say something, but Shaw held up a hand to stop her. "And I'm not sure I'd want to anyway. Sixth House, and the Library, will always feel like home, I think, but I'm not sure I have a place there anymore." She took a deep breath and shut her eyes. "I've never been to one of the formal ceremonies where necromancers and cavaliers are sworn to each other. I hate ceremonies. But I know the words."

She extended her arm towards Root, just under the surface of the water. "One flesh, one end. That's how it goes, right?"

Root's eyes were huge and for a second Shaw thought she was going to pass out, but then she reached out and clasped Shaw's hand. "One flesh, one end," she repeated, barely above a whisper. And then she tightened her grip and Shaw was pulled forwards into the soggiest hug she'd ever been forced to endure.

"This was _not_ what I had in mind," she growled into Root's shoulder as she tried to squirm free.

"You know, Sameen," Root said, not making any move to release her. "When we get back to our room we can look further into this one flesh part. And maybe even try for one end."

"You're trying really hard to ruin this, aren't you?" Shaw finally broke free and brushed herself off as much as was possible while immersed in water. "Come on." She waded over to the edge of the pool, pulled herself out, and then turned to offer Root a hand up. "Let's go back and get out of these wet clothes and then...and then we'll see, I guess."

* * *

They walked back to their rooms in silence, leaving a trail of wet puddles behind them. Root kept looking sideways at her like she expected her to vanish suddenly, and while there was definitely heat in her gaze there was also wonder.

Shaw hadn't been completely sure where things were going to go once they got back, but Root started discarding layers of sodden black cloth as soon as the door shut behind them.

"Help me with this?" Root presented her back to Shaw. There was a line of hooks along the back of her robe, holding it shut.

Shaw stepped up and undid the top clasp, her eyes flicking between her work and the ever-increasing exposed line of Root's back. "How do you even get this on yourself?" she asked.

"I just raise a few skeletons to do it for me."

"Feels like cheating somehow. There, you're done."

Root took her arms out of the sleeves and the robe fell around her waist--only held in place by her belt--leaving her half-naked before Shaw. She looked back over her shoulder at Shaw and grinned and Shaw's doubts about where this was headed all vanished. She started shedding her own wet clothes as quickly as she could.

"You know," she said as she peeled her pants off. "We're probably breaking some record for now quickly we're disregarding the tradition of necromancers and cavaliers not banging."

"I've never been good at following the rules."

Shaw straightened up and got her first good look at Root naked while she was coherent enough to appreciate the view. "Yeah, me either."

They came together much as they had the first time down in the facility. Root's mouth was hot and insistent against hers and both their hands wandered over each other's bodies, mapping out new territory. Shaw managed enough attention to aim them at the bed, and when Root's legs hit the edge she fell back onto the sheets, pulling Shaw after her.

Shaw hovered over her and paused for just a second to look. Root's hair was damp and tangled from the salt water, and there were still traces of her paint smeared on her face. She should have looked ridiculous. Maybe she actually did and Shaw was just into that now after three years at Ninth House.

"One rule," she said with her last remaining brain cell. "No goddamn skeletons in bed."

Root grinned up at her. "So, you're saying you don't want to...bone?"

"Okay, two rules. No fucking puns either."

"Whatever you say, sweetie."

Shaw bent down to shut her up with another kiss.


	13. Missing Keys

"I guess I should probably ask you about all the murders now, huh?"

Root looked up at her from where she was sprawled on the other side of the bed. "Has anyone ever told you that you're terrible at pillow talk?"

"It's never come up." Shaw wrapped part of the sheet around herself to keep Root from getting distracted (again) and sat back against the headboard. "We're going to have to go back out there and back into this whole mess soon, so before we do I'd like to get read in on everything." She easily fended off Root's attempt to steal her sheet. "I'm your cavalier, so I need to know. No more secrets, right?"

The last bit finally seemed to get through to Root. (Shaw wondered how long she'd be able to use the 'I'm your cavalier' card before it lost its obvious effect on Root).

"No more secrets," Root agreed, "but there's not that much I can tell you beyond what you already know. Whether there's a murderer among us or an angry revenant, I'm unsure. Perhaps it's both."

"A revenant? You think a ghost could control a construct like that?" Her knowledge of revenants was limited: they were the ghosts of the dead who had a strong enough willpower and reason to temporarily attach themselves to a physical object after death.

"I wouldn't have thought so before I saw the servants here," Root said. She stretched languorously on top of the sheets. "Have you noticed how perfect they are? Far too perfect to be skeletons controlled by necromancy. Each one is actually a perfectly preserved set of bones with a revenant spirit attached to it."

"That's possible?"

"The Lyctors, if they were the ones doing the research in this place, were studying souls, Shaw. The boundaries and utility of bodies and souls. It's fascinating. There's so much I could learn from this place."

"If it weren't trying to kill you."

"Well, yes. There is that."

"So angry ghosts is possibility one. And possibility two would have to be one of the remaining necromancers?"

"Or Teacher and the priests, though I think that's unlikely. Or someone else who's hidden from all of us successfully this whole time."

Shaw climbed out of bed, taking the sheet with her. "Do you suspect one of the others? Greer is my prime suspect still."

Root propped herself up on her elbows to watch her. "If it's one of the others, then they're hiding their power very well. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Greer and Stanton both were killers based on their charming personalities, but I wouldn't have thought them capable of making that construct, or even the regenerating ash in the lock."

Shaw started gathering up their wet clothing and chucking it at the laundry basket. "What's our move then?"

"We have two problems: the keys and the killer. The keys get us closer to cracking the secret of Lyctorhood, which is presumably what the killer is trying to prevent."

"So if we keep looking behind all the doors, the killer will come to us." Shaw turned back to look at Root and almost lost her resolve to leave. "We're bait."

"We'll be careful," Root promised.

"I'm always careful." Shaw tore her eyes away and headed towards the bathroom. "I'm cleaning up. Wait your turn or we'll never get out of here."

Root failed to wait her turn and Shaw didn't have the willpower to scold her. Somewhere along the line they gave up on returning to see Second House anytime soon and allowed themselves the time to work through all the pent up tension that had been building since they got here (and even before that if Shaw was being honest). They were in the huge tub when they finally wore each other out, and ended up sitting on opposite sides, legs next to each other, touching but not entwined. It was comfortable and a little too familiar for Shaw, but she was feeling too languid and satiated to consider moving just yet.

"Why did you take the keys from me the other day?" Shaw asked as she watched a bead of sweat roll down Root's neck.

Root paused from the little splashing game she was playing with her hands. "I planned to steal Sixth House's notes that night and I wanted options. I wasn't sure you'd approve of my little venture so I wanted the Second House room we'd found as a safe and empty place to retreat to if needed."

"Didn't turn out to be that safe in the end," Shaw said, remembering how Daniel had died. "Also I probably would have helped you with that, you know. If you'd asked."

Root sank down further in the water, the ends of her hair floating around her. "I didn't think it was fair to ask you to betray your house, and I...was worried that you might say no. It was easier to just have you be angry at me." She smiled ruefully. "It wasn't my most rational decision I'm afraid."

Shaw raised one foot up enough to poke Root in the side with it. "You can say that again."

Root made no attempt to ward off the poking attack and sank still lower in the water. "I thought I'd ruined everything between us."

"You almost did," Shaw said without sympathy.

Root sat back up and Shaw's eyes dipped to watch the water rolling off her collar bones.

"I have another confession to make, Shaw."

"Oh boy."

"When Sixth House sent you to me they sent your file ahead of you. Very amusing the way Sixth House keeps documents on everything including themselves, by the way."

"They keep documents on their documents," Shaw said warily. She could imagine what might have been in a file like that.

"Even with all the parts they so obviously redacted, I knew a lot about you before you ever got there."

"And yet you still agreed to take me."

"I was...curious. And intrigued."

"Enough that you risked all your big horrible secrets." Even if Shaw hadn't learned about the whole dead mother thing, Root couldn't have hidden the lack of children and young adults at Ninth House.

"Apparently you ruined my ability to be rational before we even met," Root teased. "But I don't have any regrets on that count."

"Yeah, I noticed." Shaw had held off on asking a question that had been on her mind for a while now, but since Root had apparently seen all her secrets already…. "There was no one even close to your age back on Ninth, right?"

"You know there wasn't. Why?"

"Who were you…I mean there was no way that was your first time, Root, but who the hell were you getting it on with in that isolated old age home you grew up in?"

That got a full-throated laugh out of Root, the kind Shaw had never heard from her before. She looked extremely pleased with the question (or perhaps with herself).

"A lady doesn't kiss and tell, Sameen."

"Uh-huh, bullshit. Were you really banging senior citizens?"

"Of course not. There were...other options. Shuttle pilots, the occasional trader, some of the staff who worked at the prison--" (Shaw had forgotten about the prison hosted on the same planet as Ninth House). "--plenty of simple and uncomplicated options which is how I prefer things."

"Me, too," Shaw hurried to agree. Her one lingering concern with Root revolved around the potential...complications that could arise from this.

Root studied her in silence for a moment as if she was searching for something. "I need a cavalier, Shaw, and I definitely want more of all this--" She gestured at both their naked bodies. "And I could use a friend, but beyond that…" She shrugged. "What I'm saying is, don't overthink this."

She looked down at her hands and frowned. "My fingers are all wrinkly."

"That's what happens when you stay in the water for too long," Shaw said, glad for the change in subject to hide how deeply relieved she felt by everything Root had said. The sex part she was already great at, and she thought she was getting the hang of the whole cavalier gig, and as for friendship, well, she could figure it out maybe.

She stood up in the tub and enjoyed the way Root openly stared at her as she climbed out and wrapped herself in a towel. "You staying in there all night?"

She left Root to dry off and threw on just enough clothing (and weapons) to make a trip to the kitchens. Fortunately no one was around except the skeleton servants who seemed resigned to her stealing food now. She couldn't help but think about how they were all actually revenants according to Root, ghosts bound to bones. It made the whole thing slightly more awkward. Mindless animated bones waiting on her was one thing, but actual souls of dead people?

"Thanks," she said as she secured her tray of food. "Great job with the...cooking and stuff." She fled.

Root had put on her nightgown when Shaw returned and was sitting cross-legged on the bed looking at the ceiling and chewing her lip.

"Here. Food." Shaw dropped the tray on the table and took her own portion first.

They ate in comfortable silence, Root lost in thought and Shaw fine with not having to make small talk. The whole evening was one of the more pleasant ones Shaw had passed...up until it came time to go to bed.

They'd decided it was too late to go back to Second House, and that they could both use a good night's sleep, but when Shaw headed towards her room, Root called after her.

"Take half the bed tonight, Shaw."

"I'm not sure that's--"

"I told you, don't overthink this." Root looked exasperated. "The bed is large enough for at least four and sleeping on the ground isn't as restful. I need you in your best form tomorrow."

Shaw had spent a lot of time asleep in the bed after the siphoning challenge which made it harder to turn down the idea of sleeping somewhere soft and warm. Her resolve faded as Root plumped up a pillow and tossed it on the far side of the bed.

"Fine, but stay on your side or I'll dump your ass on the floor."

"Whatever you say, sweetie."

The bed really was incredibly comfortable and Root didn't seem inclined to invade Shaw's half, but Shaw still couldn't fall asleep right away, and from the sound of Root's breathing, neither could she.

"Hey, Root?"

The blankets rustled as Root rolled over. It was too dark to see much more than the faint outline of her shape on her other side of the bed.

"Did you ever...I mean you lived your whole life guarding a locked door. Didn't you ever want to look inside? See what it was the Emperor was so scared of?" She was aware that her question was probably blasphemy (or treason), but she couldn't imagine Root giving a fuck about that.

Root was silent for long enough that Shaw thought she might have fallen asleep.

"I was always curious," she said finally. "Ever since I was old enough to crawl."

"So...did you ever go look?"

"I tried. It's warded in some way that even I couldn't get past it, so I never made it all the way in, but…."

"But what?" Shaw prompted when Root didn't continue.

"After I tried to get in, I started dreaming about her. I'd see her every night in my mind and she'd talk to me and…." Root trailed off. "It's easy to imagine that I just made her up. What lonely little girl wouldn't want an imaginary friend after all? But I know she's real and she's trapped in that tomb, held prisoner by some supposed god who fears her."

"Who is 'she', Root? You telling me there's a girl in the tomb?"

"A dead girl, encased in ice, and bound by chains. She was...she was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen in my life, Shaw. She's why I can't just leave Ninth House behind forever. I can't leave her trapped there."

"You want to free the Emperor's greatest enemy?"

"No one knows exactly why she's in there. Why should I believe that she's a threat and the Emperor is in the right? Locking someone up like that forever is...I know what being trapped feels like, and she was the only one who was ever kind to me."

This had rapidly turned into something way too involved for a late night chat. "Did she tell you anything? About the Emperor? Or herself? Why she's there?"

"No, nothing. Mostly she just...listened." The sheets rustled again and Shaw saw Root's silhouette as she propped herself up on one arm. "You can't tell anyone about her, Shaw. Promise me."

"I already signed your super secrecy form, remember?" She rolled her eyes, sensing that this secret went beyond any of the others Root had trusted her with. "Fine, I'm not going to tell anyone about your weird dead tomb girlfriend."

Root clubbed her with a pillow. "If you do, after I kill you, I'll raise your skeleton and have it scrub out the bathrooms in Drearburh for eternity."

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." She was glad the dark hid her smile. "Goodnight, Root."

"Goodnight, Sameen."

* * *

Early the next morning, they were back in front of the door to Second House's quarters in clean clothing and matching skull face paint. It remained to be seen what exactly Shaw's new role as a more official cavalier would mean for both of them in the future, but for now she was willing to look the part, especially since it had made Root's whole face light up in a way that Shaw had rarely seen. (Though the process of Root applying the paint to her face had almost led to a reprisal of the previous night).

Carter opened the door herself and studied them both critically. "Hmmm."

Shaw hadn't felt this transparent under scrutiny since she'd been caught sneaking out of the maintenance tunnel with Theodore Exi when they were both fifteen.

"We've sorted things out," Root said brightly.

"So I see."

"Have you finished with my notes?"

Dani appeared next to Carter as if summoned holding a stack of flimsy which she held out.

"There's a copy of my notes there, too," Carter said, "and we can continue our discussion of this later, but right now we have something else to take care of."

Root arched an eyebrow up in perfect disbelief. "Oh?"

"We'll get in touch with you later," Carter said firmly and waited only the briefest polite interval before shutting the door on them.

"That was unexpected," Root said as they left, "but perhaps it's just as well. She might not approve of what I'm planning to do next."

"Which is what?" Shaw asked, heavily suspecting she wasn't going to approve of it either.

"We're going to get Eighth's key."

"Are you going to challenge him?" She cracked her knuckles. "Please tell me you're going to challenge him."

"As tempting as that is, I think a subtler method is needed here."

For once the location of Eighth House wasn't a mystery as they'd passed right by Lambert eating in the dining room on their way to Second House's rooms. He was on his way out when they found him and if he was nervous about being confronted by both of them at once, he didn't show it. His smug little smile and over-styled hair made Shaw want to punch his lights out.

"Ah, the Ninth House heretics. How charming. Were you looking for someone?"

There had been a carefully laid-out plan for this next part. It had involved all of Shaw's favorite things--clever diversions, sneakiness, theft--and she'd been completely committed to sticking to it right up until she saw Lambert and remembered how much she hated him. And so she developed and executed Plan B in one glorious second.

Root watched impassively as Lambert slumped to the floor. Shaw shook her fist out.

"Was there some reason for that?" Root asked as Shaw stooped to rifle through Lambert's pockets. "Not that it wasn't very satisfying to watch."

"I don't like him." Shaw pulled a keyring with two keys out of his pocket. "Found it."

"Let me see."

The first key was another one for the hatch, but the second was a large, grey key.

"I take it we're going to be trying this out right away?" Shaw asked as she stood back up.

Root had her notebook open to the map of the doors she'd made. "Yes, and I know exactly which door this key goes to."

The door turned out to be all the way at the top of a tower, up a rather excessive number of stairs. Shaw thought she might have to carry Root up at one point, but Root persevered and led them up to a black door that looked exactly like all the other key doors had. Shaw fit the key in the lock and the door swung open.

It was dark inside and Shaw fumbled along the wall until she found a switch. Lights came on and illuminated a room that would have been the messiest Shaw had ever seen if she hadn't been sharing space with Root for the last few weeks. There were clothes and paper scattered everywhere as if whoever lived there had left in a hurry. Or just been a total slob.

Root didn't seem to mind the mess and headed directly over to the workbench in the lab area. Shaw could see stone tablets like there'd been in the other room which no doubt had the theorem for the challenge they'd skipped. Root had her notebook out and was scribbling in it within seconds.

"Anything good?" Shaw asked. The diagrams on the tablets meant nothing to her.

"It's the theorem detailing how the skeleton servants were put together. The way the souls were bound to the bones. Whoever's rooms these were must have come up with the theory."

"And is that useful?" She picked through a mess of books and papers. A large binder on the floor caught her eye and she bent to grab it.

"It might be. There's something very odd about all the challenges and all the theorems so far." Root actually left off from her notes long enough to explain. "Take the siphoning challenge, for example. It suggests a way to withstand the most powerful of attacks or destructive fields, but it requires constant siphoning to do so. For it to be practical, you'd need an infinite power source."

"Yeah, I guess it would be a problem if you had to almost kill your cavalier every time you needed to protect yourself. Maybe that's where all the cavaliers went." She opened the binder to the front page which had a faded note on yellow paper that said:

CONFIRMED INDEPENDENTLY HIGHLIGHTED BEST OPTION

"What do you mean?" Root asked. "Which cavaliers?"

"Oh, I meant the cavaliers of the necromancers who became the first Lyctors. I was wondering what happened to them the other day. Never heard of the Lyctors having cavaliers so I guess they don't need them."

Shaw flipped through a few pages of the binder which seemed to be full of a lot of ancient pictures of people she'd never seen before. All the pictures were crossed out with black pen. "Hopefully they never have to actually fight, though I guess if they had some infinite power source they might not need to know how to use a rapier."

She glanced up to see Root staring at her with the strangest look on her face.

"What?"

"That can't be…." Root shook her head and turned back to the theorem tablets. "I need to get access to the last two theorems as soon as possible. There must be something else I'm missing."

"Well, I don't know how we're going to find those last two keys if our killer has them both." Shaw went back to the binder and flipped through some more pictures. Had these people all lived here back when the Lyctors were here?

She turned another page and froze. "Uh, Root?" She reached out to smack her arm. "I think you'll want to see this."

There on the page in the binder was a very familiar face, circled in black pen. Teacher didn't look any older or younger in the picture than the last time Shaw had seen him which was upsetting considering how old this picture must have been.

"What the hell does this mean?" she asked. "Is Teacher a bewitching corpse thing like Alicia Corwin was?"

"Beguiling, and I'm not sure. I don't understand how they can exist without someone controlling them. Maybe one of the Lyctors found a way to make them independent? But then how did Seventh House manage?"

"We need to find him immed--"

She was cut off by a horrible, impossible loud alarm blaring through the building. The inescapable BRRAAARP...BRAAARP….BRAAARP made her want to clap her hands over her ears.

 _"This is a fire alarm,"_ a woman's voice announced from some speaker Shaw couldn't spot. _"Please make your way to designated safe zones, led by your fire warden."_

Shaw had grown up on Sixth House, a station where a fire alarm often meant there were only seconds until death. She grabbed Root's arm and propelled her out of the room into the hallway.

"Any idea where these safe zones are?" she asked as she hurried down the steps, dragging Root behind her.

"No idea, but I don't think the danger here is the same as it would be on a station, Shaw. This world has its own habitable atmosphere and--"

"We're not taking any chances with that. This is listen-to-your-cavalier time, got it?"

"Whatever you say," Root said demurely. Shaw thought she might be laughing at her.

But as they made their way back through Canaan House there were no signs of a fire. No smell of smoke, no heat. Nothing except the scattered remains of a skeleton servant on the floor.

"That can't be good," Shaw said as Root stooped to poke at the bones. The bone disintegrated to dust under her finger. "We need to keep moving."

As they neared the dining room, they finally found the source of the smoke. In the kitchens, sprinklers sprayed from the ceiling and a pan of fish smoked on the stove. The bones of servants littered the floor. Shaw waded through the water accumulating on the floor to turn off the stove.

"Any idea what's going on?" she asked. The sprinklers turned off as the smoke cleared and mercifully the blaring alarm went off as well.

"Something extremely bad. We need to find the others and find Teacher."

What they found, slumped over at a table in the dining room, was one of the other old priests, his head resting on the table.

Shaw examined him. "Doesn't look like that construct killed him. Too neat."

"I suspect he's been dead for a very long time," Root said. "We really need to find Teacher."

With no other clues to follow, they headed to the only place either of them could think to start looking. Shaw had found the hallway where Teacher and the other priests lived her second day in Canaan House and she was unsurprised that Root also knew exactly where it was given her ambitious mapping of all the doors.

It was easy to tell which room in the long hall they were looking for due to the huge pile of bones leading up to the closed door. It was as if all the skeleton servants had died trying to get inside. Shaw drew her matched knives, ready for a fight in close quarters.

"Stay behind me," she said as she crunched her way across the bones to the door.

She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting to find in the room, but it definitely wasn't what awaited her.

Captain Joss Carter sat slumped in a chair looking the worse for wear. She had a lot of blood on her uniform but it was impossible to tell where it was coming from or how badly hurt she was. On the floor nearby was Dani Silva, clutching her arm to her chest. One of her legs was badly broken in a way that looked like it should have been physically impossible and she appeared to be holding onto consciousness by a thread.

And beyond them, lying on the floor, was Teacher, a rapier through his chest and a dagger in his neck.

"He didn't give us a choice," Carter said as they stared. She tried to rise and winced in pain. "Can you help my cavalier?"

Root knelt next to Dani and examined her. "I can fix her bones, but she's badly hurt. We're going to need real medical attention."

"I might be able to do something if I had my med kit from my room," Shaw offered. "But what the hell happened here? Did you two attack Teacher?"

"He wouldn't let us get to his communication channel," Carter explained as if that made total sense. "But we did in the end. We sent out an SOS. Help will be here."

"Help? You got in touch with the Cohort?" Shaw asked.

On the floor, Dani let out a high-pitched keening noise and then passed out. Her leg looked much better though. Root stood.

"I've done what I can. She'll live, I think." She turned to Carter. "Who did you call? There weren't supposed to be any channels out of this place."

"I knew he was holding out," Carter said. "He had a way to communicate this whole time, though not to the Cohort, and not to any of the Houses. He's not human at all. He's some sort of monster and a damned strong one at that."

"Who did you call?" Root asked again, more urgently.

"The Emperor's fleet. He's coming here. The Emperor is on his way." She nodded at Teacher's corpse. "He said I'd betrayed the Emperor, as if anyone in Second House would ever do such a thing. As far as I'm concerned, this guy is our most likely murderer. Nearly killed both of us."

"Teacher definitely wasn't an old man," Root said. "If I'm correct, he was a container for a hundred souls or more, and possibly what all the other priests and the servants were linked to. He was a...prototype. An idea. For what, I'm not sure."

"An ancient monster," Carter said. She clutched at her side.

"Captain, I've had medical training," Shaw said. "If you're badly injured I might be able to help."

"I don't think Teacher was our killer," Root said, ignoring them. "He was legitimately scared of whatever it was down in the facility he warned us about. I wonder if he even could have survived a trip down there or if the strange nature of his being was linked to this place."

A horrible gurgle from the floor made all of them jump. Teacher lifted his head slightly and clawed at the air with one hand. "You have drawn him back to the one place he must never come," he wheezed from his ruined throat. "Oh, Lord, help us, one of them has come back."

A shiver ran down Shaw's spine at his words.

Carter stood up just enough to grab the hilt of the rapier that he was impaled upon and twisted it sharply. Teacher slumped back to the floor.

"One of what?" Shaw asked, not really expecting an answer.

"You two need to go and find the others," Carter commanded. "Help is coming, but I have no clue how long it will take. Days maybe. We need to establish order here until they arrive and set up a defensible position if there really is some killer monster out there still."

"I don't take orders from you," Root said stiffly.

"It's a good call though," Shaw pointed out. "For all we know, Teacher might have been the only thing discouraging our killer. We should at least find the others, and these two need medical attention."

"We have our own supplies in our rooms," Carter said. "I'll get her there after I've had a moment to rest."

"Not sure you should move."

"You let me worry about that."

Shaw was ready to press the issue, but Root touched her on the arm. "We'll see you later then, Captain."

It felt wrong leaving them there, but Shaw followed after Root without further protest.

"I have a feeling this isn't the only incident in progress here today," Root said as they hurried back the way they'd come. "No sign of any of the others even after the alarm? You'd think they'd all have come running."

"Where are we going then?"

"Back to the facility, for starters. I think…." She came to an abrupt halt in the hall and Shaw had to backtrack to reach her. "I'm still missing two of the theorems, Shaw, but I can see at least one path they might point to and I don't like it at all. I'm not sure calling the Emperor here was a good idea."

"What do you mean?"

But before Root could answer, two figures rounded the corner: Kara Stanton and John Reese, both in their Fourth House blue robes.

"Oh, it's you two," Kara said in obvious disappointment. "We were looking for the uptight soldiers, but I guess you'll do."

"Why were you looking for us?" Shaw asked. "Did something happen?"

"I suppose you could say that. I think Eighth House, despite all their accusations of heresy, have gone and desecrated a body."

* * *

The freezer that served as the morgue was still ice cold and mercifully free of servant bones. The corpses of Schiffman and Daniel were untouched, but there was a gaping hole in Control's side that hadn't been there before.

Shaw examined the jagged wound. Whatever kind of blade had made it hadn't been suited to the job.

"Lambert made a mess," Kara said. "Little shit uses a sword breaker as his offhand. Nasty thing and definitely not good for autopsies. Wonder what he was after."

"The last key," Root said with certainty. "Fifth House must have completed a challenge that night before they were killed. Either Control hid it in herself to keep it safe, or someone else did after she was dead."

"They must be in the last room right now," Shaw said. "I think it's time to have a chat with them."

"Normally I'd say count me out," Kara said, "but I'm not going to miss out on a chance to beat the shit out of those two. I'm guessing the little skeleton prodigy over here already knows which door it is."

Calling Root a skeleton prodigy was not the insult Kara thought it was since Root just looked smug in response. "I know exactly where it is."

Shaw knew as well which door it had to be. Between the regenerating ash in the lock, the key hidden in a corpse, and the murder of Fifth House, someone had gone to a lot of trouble to keep anyone from opening the door behind the painting. She knew she was correct the moment that got to the hallway, because the painting was on the floor and the door gaped open.

She touched Root's arm to halt her and then moved ahead of her, knives out. Reese kept pace with her, rapier and buckler at the ready. Together, they stepped into the doorway and pushed the massive black door the rest of the way open.

The room on the other side had the same approximate dimensions as the others had, but the similarities ended there. This room was well lit with brightly painted walls and polished wood floors. On the wall, high above all else, were giant letters painted in black that spelled out:

YOU LIED TO US

Normally something like that would have been of interest to Shaw, but as it was she barely noticed the words due to what was going on in the center of the room.

John Greer sat regally in a comfortable armchair that didn't suit him at all. There was a fine sheen of sweat on his forehead and he was rocking back and forth ever so slightly. On the floor at his feet was Jeremy Lambert, face down on the carpet with his own rapier stabbed right through his back to pierce his heart.

"Sometimes I hate being right," Root's voice said from right behind Shaw.

"Ah, I see we have guests," Greer said. His smile, while strained, was as contemptuous as ever. "Forgive me for not rising, but I'm still getting accustomed to my new circumstances."

Root and Kara had pushed their way into the room as well by then and everyone looked at Greer and the dead cavalier at his feet.

"You killed your own cavalier?" Shaw asked. She would have happily killed Lambert herself given half a chance, but she wasn't his necromancer. She couldn't imagine why any necromancer, even from the despicable Eighth House, would ever kill their own cavalier.

"He's done something far worse than that," Root said, her face and voice both devoid of emotion.

"I thought you might be close to figuring out," Greer said to her. "Lucky for all of us that I did first. It would be wrong to make the Emperor suffer the presence of a Ninth House heretic."

"Root? What the fuck is he going on about?" Shaw asked without looking away from Greer. There was something wrong with him, something wrong with his eyes. Greer had cold, blue eyes, but something darker swirled through that icy blue now.

"Your necromancer hasn't told you then?" Greer asked. "Well, I suppose I can't blame her for that." He stood slowly, his whole body swaying. "You see, my dear, I've unlocked the key to immortality--to becoming a Lyctor--and the price was no more nor less than the soul of my cavalier."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oops


	14. The Megatheorem

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things start diverging a bit more from the books from this point on. Still in the same general vicinity, but headed a different way.
> 
> Greer's explanation of the theorem is taken basically verbatim from the book.
> 
> Also the whole climax of this piece is more action scenes (and longer ones) than I'm used to writing this bunched up (runs all through the next chapter as well) and boy was that a challenge. I am deeply impressed by and envious of Tamsyn Muir's ability to write badass action scenes in her novels, especially how great she writes the visuals. Where is my locked tomb animated tv show??? Netflix make it happen.

There was a stunned silence in the room as everyone absorbed that information. Shaw's eyes travelled from Lambert's corpse, up to Greer's eyes, and back again.

There was a sound of footsteps in the hallway behind them and then Third House entered and both stopped short as they took in the scene.

"Ah, just in time," Greer said. "It's good that you're all here to witness my triumph. It is fitting, is it not, that only the Emperor's most loyal would be able to rise above the rest."

"You only had one key though," Root said. Her voice was steady enough, but the slightest waver in it told Shaw that she was truly shaken. "How could you do this with only one of the theorems?"

"You're clever for a bone witch," Greer sneered. "I'll give you that, but I've been around almost five decades longer than you and I spent all my life studying necromancy. You could never hope to be my equal, Ninth. I didn't need all the theorems laid out for me like some novice. I examined each of the challenges and calculated the theorems myself."

"What exactly is going on here?" Zoe asked. Tomas had his rapier and trident out as well. Shaw scanned the room quickly, taking in the layout and position of everything in case it came to a fight. Not cluttered enough to cause issues, but not much of use either. There was a weapon rack in this room as well, but it was empty. Shaw's eyes were drawn to an oddly darker strip around the back wooden bar of the rack. It was as if something had been wrapped around it that had protected the wood beneath from fading and only recently been removed. Something about that kicked Shaw in the back of her mind, but she filed it away to examine later.

"Greer stabbed his cavalier and claims he's a Lyctor now," she explained as she kept up her examination. "But it can't be that simple, right?"

Greer chuckled. "It's the sum of all the theorems here. Easy once you understand what you're looking at. Step one, _preserve_ the soul with memory and intellect intact." He looked down at Lambert. "Well, what intellect there is, anyway." ("Harsh," Shaw said with just a touch of appreciation). "Step two, _analyze_ the soul--understand its structure and shape. Step three, remove and _absorb_ it, taking it into yourself without consuming it in the process. Step four--"

He pulled the rapier out of Lambert's body. All the cavaliers tensed up and Shaw stared at the way he held it, his grip on the hilt ever so slightly off just as Lambert's had been back in the hall that first day.

"-- _fix_ it in place so it can't deteriorate. That one I was a bit unsure of which was why I needed the key to this room. Step five, _incorporate_ it: find a way to make it part of yourself without being overwhelmed. Step six, _consume_ the flesh. Though that is a somewhat dramatic way of putting it. Only a drop of blood was necessary. Step seven, reconstruction--make the spirit and flesh work together as they used to in the new body. And then for the final step you merely need to start up the entire new system inside yourself and let the power of your cavalier's immortal soul become your own, endless source of power."

Shaw couldn't look away from Greer's grip on the rapier. That was Lambert's movement, Lambert's inadequate technique being played out by Greer's body, like a recording. If she understood even half of what Greer had just said then he'd gotten not only the raw energy of Lambert's soul, but all of Lambert's skills. She thought back to the challenge with the construct where Root had seen through her eyes and the siphoning one where Root had used her life force to enhance herself. She'd joked at the time about how the challenges seemed determined to get the cavaliers killed, but it turned out the joke was on her.

"Tell me, Shaw the _Ninth_ ," Greer said, drawing her attention back to his eyes. The brown flooding into the blue was like some ghostly trace of Lambert. "Will you let your necromancer put a blade through your heart, or will she have to do it by force?"

A sudden realization dawned on Shaw and she saw a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned, and her knife flashed out to cut deep into the arm of Kara Stanton. A long, ugly dagger fell from the hand of the Fourth House necromancer and clattered to the floor before it could find its target on Reese's back. Kara raised her uninjured arm, no doubt intending to do something unpleasant, and three skeletons sprang up around her to grab her arms. They wouldn't have been able to hold her long, but at that moment, John Reese hit her over the head with the non-spiky side of his buckler and she collapsed to the floor.

Greer chuckled behind them, but for the moment they ignored him.

"You want me to kill her?" Shaw offered.

Reese shook his head. "She's my necromancer. My responsibility."

"She tried to stab you in the back. Literally."

"She'll try again if she's given a chance," Root agreed. She met Shaw's eyes and the ghost of a smile flickered across her lips, too brief for the others to catch.

"I'll think of something," Reese said. He looked troubled and Shaw didn't envy him the task. She counted herself lucky that she wouldn't face the same decision.

"You really aren't concerned for your own back, Shaw the Ninth?" Greer asked. He swung Lambert's rapier back and forth in the air experimentally though not pointed at any of them. "Ninth House treachery knows no bounds."

"Root didn't even want to let me fight the fun skeleton monster in the basement," Shaw said dismissively. "She tried to talk me out of the siphoning challenge. That's twice she was willing to walk away from being a Lyctor without my death even being certain."

Root made a slightly choked noise that might have been embarrassment. Maybe Shaw had made her look uncool in front of the other necromancers. Oh well.

"So you're saying there's a dead cavalier?" Zoe asked slowly. "Inside of the Eighth House necromancer?"

"It's more likely than you think," Shaw said before she could stop herself. "And yeah, he's gone full Lyctor on us." She kept half an eye on Zoe, but she didn't think it was likely that she'd try to consume Tomas the way Kara had tried with Reese.

"There's one thing I don't understand," Root said, turning to face Greer. "If you killed Fifth House days ago, why wait until now to use their key?"

Greer lowered the rapier. "Why because I wasn't the one to kill them, of course. I'd rather thought that was your doing, Ninth, but maybe Fourth was behind it."

"Kara would have used the key," Reese said. "We'd been trying to get one for days without success. She wouldn't have hidden it. Also she was with me that night."

Everyone turned to look at Zoe who held her hands up in defense. "I didn't even have a key to the facility and frankly I've only ever had a passing interest in the whole Lyctor thing."

"So who then?" Shaw asked. Her eyes strayed back to the giant letters painted on the wall. Had those been here for thousands of years as well, or were they more recent? Who had lied to whom?

Her eyes returned to the weird dark spot on the weapon rack and then back to Greer in his imperfect cavalier stance, and a horrible suspicion formed in the back of her mind.

Before she could say anything, though, Kara Stanton stood back up, her eyes gleaming with fury. Shaw was about to move in again, but she hesitated when she saw the target of Kara's anger.

"We'll talk about this later, John," Kara said, "but I assure you my main purpose here was to put myself on even footing with that monster. If I have to fight him as a mortal, then so be it." She pushed past Reese to face Greer. "Fourth House is the Emperor's vanguard. We don't run from a fight and we don't suffer a threat to the Emperor, and a zealot of Eighth House with that sort of power is a threat to us all."

"Should we do something?" Shaw asked Root quietly. She liked the idea of stabbing one or both of the hostile necromancers, but she also didn't mind the idea of watching them murder each other.

"Wait for now." Root pulled her back a step to give the others room. "Better to let them wear each other out. But stand ready."

Nearby, Reese stood almost too straight, his whole body tight with barely restrained energy as he watched Kara. He made no movement to join her though. Zoe of all people was the one inching nearer with Tomas hovering nervously at her shoulder.

"There's no reason for us to fight, Fourth," Greer said lazily. "I have no issue with you dedicating yourself to the Emperor as well. A shame you missed your chance." His eyes settled on Root. "Perhaps we even have an enemy in common."

"I'll deal with the Ninth later," Kara said with more confidence than Shaw thought was merited. "But first…."

Shaw knew what Fourth House's specialty was, but she was still surprised when Lambert's corpse exploded in a rush of thanergy. Bits of flesh and bone flew through the air and Shaw stepped quickly in front of her necromancer to shield her. She saw Zoe retreat to a safe distance on the other side of the room. Somehow Kara had managed to aim most of the explosion at Greer--which made Shaw reevaluate her power--and only a few stray pieces of entrails flew at Shaw. She wiped a piece of something gooey off her face.

Greer had taken the full brunt of the blast and had ugly wounds all over his body. A piece of bone was stuck right in the side of his neck in a way that would have been fatal to any normal human. He calmly pulled it out even as his wounds knitted themselves shut with alarming speed.

"You can't kill me, Fourth. You can't even harm me in any real way. I have an unlimited source of power now far beyond your capabilities."

Shaw couldn't fully describe what happened next, but it was like there was a subtle shift in the pressure in the room that reminded her of back when Greer had siphoned Lambert at the murder scene. As for the newly-made Lyctor himself, Greer seemed to glow with power even though nothing visible changed about him. Kara, for her part, seemed to be in her element. She raised her hands and this time Shaw thought see could actually see the power flowing from her and bending around Greer like he was inside a bubble.

Greer took a step towards her and lunged with his rapier, but the thrust went wide and Greer almost stumbled as he overbalanced. It was Lambert's lack of skill mixed with what remained of Lambert's combat sense being unable to compensate for the older, weaker body of the necromancer. Greer tsked in annoyance and cast the rapier aside.

"Brother Lambert may not be helpful in all ways, but I don't need to rely on anything as coarse as a blade."

He clapped his hands together and the pressure dropped abruptly in the room making Shaw's ears pop. Kara staggered back a step as if she'd been struck and her power faltered.

"No one is more prepared than Eighth House for the power of a Lyctor," Greer continued. "Constant siphoning from an eternal source is the ultimate form of our craft."

"It isn't the same though," Root murmured so quietly that only Shaw could hear.

Shaw rolled her eyes because here in the middle of an epic necromantic battle Root was still a total nerd. She was surprised she wasn't taking notes.

Kara was struggling, blood sweat running down her face and more blood pouring from her nose. The only thing in her favor was that Greer seemed to be having troubles of his own. He lurched sideways and gasped.

"You will stop fighting me, Brother Lambert. That is an order."

"Is Lambert still alive in there?" Shaw asked Root in a whisper.

"Hmm, not exactly. He's very dead and his soul is all that remains. I think the process of it being assimilated into Greer isn't instantaneous." Root's eyes didn't leave the fight as she spoke. "It might take several days for him to be fully absorbed if I calculated the process correctly and I don't think whatever thread of him is left is enjoying the process much."

Greer doubled over as if in pain and then slammed his hands down on the floor. A shockwave echoed out from the impact and Kara fell to her knees, her power falling away. There was movement on the other side of the room and Shaw saw Zoe slumped against the wall. She'd been staying just outside the range of the fight but she must have been caught in the blast. Tomas picked her up off the floor and headed to the door without a backwards glance at the dueling necromancers.

"Maybe we should get out of here as well?" Shaw asked. It was a great fight and all, but she didn't want to be collateral damage.

Kara looked up through the blood on her face, teeth gritted. Power flared up in her again growing stronger and brighter in an alarming way. Greer frowned and took a step back.

"Out. Now," Root ordered. She grabbed Shaw's arm and headed for the door. Shaw took one last look over her shoulder as she went to see a blue aura vibrating intensely around Kara. Then they were out in the hallway and Shaw felt the pressure return to almost normal. She was surprised to see Reese had followed them out and was about to comment on it, but Root tugged on her arm. "Keep moving."

They were halfway down the hall when the explosion rattled the building. Pieces of wood and plaster rained out from the walls of the room and littered the floor. The air reeked of scorched flesh and smoke.

Fourth House were the first onto the battlefield and they made use of what materials they found there, and those materials were often the corpses of the fallen. Shaw didn't understand the full mechanics of it but she'd witnessed it first hand, the way the corpses of the dead turned into bombs at the will of the necromancers. Kara hadn't been dead yet, but she must have figured out how to apply the same principle to herself--to make herself into a living bomb in the hopes of bringing down the Lyctor.

"Do you think he survived?" Shaw asked as she watched smoke drift out into the hall.

"I think it takes a lot more than that to kill a Lyctor," Root said slowly. "And I think we need to keep moving."

Shaw wasn't going to argue with that though she paused when Reese didn't follow.

"She's gone, Reese, but we've got another problem. Maybe a bigger problem."

"Do we?" Root asked and then understanding dawned on her face. "The murderer. You know who it is?"

"Yeah, and you're not going to like this."

* * *

It had been horribly simple to figure out once she had all the pieces: the construct must have been controlled by a powerful necromancer, but none of the necromancers still alive had made it and potentially none were capable of making it (though Root seemed keen to try). It had been made the same way as the construct in the Lyctor challenge had, from the regenerating ash that none of them had seen before coming to this place, this place built upon the theorems of Lyctors.

And then they had their other mystery, half-forgotten in all the chaos: a necromancer who was actually a beguiling corpse. A puppet whose strings were held by an invisible puppetmaster. It would have made more sense if the roles had been reversed, if the walking corpse had been the cavalier and the necromancer the puppeteer, but Martine had been a cavalier. After all she'd moved like one and fought like one in the facility.

Just as Greer had moved like his cavalier moments before after he'd become a Lyctor. And with those loose green robes, who could tell if Martine had the build and muscles of a real cavalier? Who would ever stop to think a skilled cavalier fighting with a rapier might be a necromancer?

"Are you saying," Reese asked in disbelief, "that Martine Rousseau is a Lyctor?"

They'd left the area of the necromancer vs Lyctor battle royale behind since none of them much wanted to be around if Greer got back up. Root had seemed to think there was a decent chance he'd be able to heal the damage from a single human body bomb just that way he had Kara's first attempt. With nowhere clear to go and the unspoken desire to not linger anywhere, they'd ended up aimlessly roaming the hallways.

Root said nothing but the thunderous look on her face spoke volumes.

"We've got a monster that only a Lyctor could have made running around in a building full of ancient Lyctor magic and Alicia Corwin being puppeted by some unknown necromancer," Shaw said. She kept her voice low even though there was technically no one to overhear them. The only sign of 'life' they'd seen were the bones of some of the former skeleton servants scattered around. "The missing piece though was the sword rack in that room. Did you notice anything about it?" She directed the question to Reese.

"Sword had been taken off recently and something was wrapped around the back. Probably a chain off-hand."

"Cavaliers," Root muttered with only minimal malice.

Shaw smirked because she'd known Root would never have noticed what had been readily apparent to both herself and Reese. Cavaliers would absolutely take half a second to look at a new and exciting display of weapons even with all the murder drama unfolding.

"Guess what Martine's off-hand weapon is," she said. She hadn't seen the chain clearly, but she'd been pretty damn sure. "I think that must have been her room, her's and her cavalier's. She hid the key to keep us from finding anything incriminating in there, though she must have gotten in at some point to get her old weapons."

"And the paint on the wall looked fresh," Root mused. "You lied to us, it said. Who would have lied to a Lyctor?"

"But Martine is dead," Reese objected.

Root looked disgusted. "Don't be dull, John. You saw how easily Greer healed from a bomb going off at his feet and he barely has a grasp on his power yet. An ancient Lyctor could heal the wounds Shaw described with no effort, especially if she controlled the construct that made them and could choose where they hit her."

"The body was gone," Shaw added. "She probably hid Kelli's to make it less obvious." Martine had killed Daniel and Kelli. She should have understood that was part of her revelation at once, but it hadn't sunk in immediately. "I'm going to kick her ancient ass into the ocean."

"And Greer's," Reese agreed grimly. "Kara might have...she wasn't...but she was my necromancer."

"Cavaliers," Root muttered again with even more exasperation. "We don't even know where she is. She must have gone to ground after faking her death. Perhaps she's down in the facility still?"

What sounded like an explosion echoed through the halls and brought all of them to a halt.

"That sounds like a Lyctor to me," Shaw said cheerfully. "Wonder which one it is?"

"We need more necromancers," Reese said. "Second and Third."

"Both were injured," Shaw pointed out.

"Both will be dead if this goes poorly," Root countered. "Make yourself useful, big lug. Go get us some backup."

"I'll check their rooms first," he agreed and turned to go.

"Wait," Shaw ordered. Root looked at her with an eyebrow raised in question. "We need a plan."

The others looked at her expectantly.

"Well, I don't have one," she clarified, "but we still need one. Root? You know stuff about Lyctors, right?"

"Nothing that would help us."

"I have an idea," Reese said. His eyes were cold in a way Shaw recognized and understood. He might not have been willing to wade into the necromancer fight and get himself killed for Kara, but he wasn't happy about her death either.

"This should be entertaining," Root murmured sarcastically.

His idea was very simple and violent, two things Shaw greatly approved of. Even Root looked impressed.

"That could actually help," she said thoughtfully. "We'll definitely need the other necromancers though. Both, if possible."

"I'll get them and get everything set up. How do I find you when I'm done?"

There was another distant crash from somewhere in the building.

"Somehow, I don't think you'll have a problem finding us," Shaw said.

Once Reese had set off on his various errands, Root turned to Shaw. "Alone at last."

"You mean other than the possibly multiple Lyctors who want to kill us?"

"Spoilsport."

Shaw tried not to smile at the fake sulk on Root's face. "Let's go ruin her day."

They didn't know exactly where the loud explosion noise had come from, but it wasn't hard to locate the source. It was a massive room with tiled floors and an enormous dry fountain in the middle. They entered it through a door on the balcony that wrapped around the entire upper part of the room and looked over the railing. The glass in the ceiling above had shattered and fallen to the floor and a light rain misted down through the holes in places. Below was chaos.

John Greer showed almost no sign of the injuries he'd taken earlier but he was still walking unsteadily as he crossed the black and white tiled floor. There were pieces of bones scattered everywhere and stuck into the walls like shrapnel. It looked like an enormous bomb made of bones had gone off in the middle of the room, tearing up tiles and destroying half the fountain.

"Have you learned your place yet, you unfaithful abomination?" John Greer called.

Shaw squinted at the room below but she couldn't see another person. He appeared to be yelling at a huge white mass at the end of the hall that looked like it was a solid mass of bone.

The bone peeled back in layers like a piece of fruit, and a figure stepped out from the center of it. She was wearing only a simple green dress now and her hair was down around her. In one hand she held a rapier that Shaw could tell was beautifully crafted even from a distance, and wrapped around her other arm was a thin chain with a solid weight on each end. Martine Rousseau was recognizable as the same person they'd spent weeks with in this place, but she still looked different, like her own evil, ancient twin.

"My place?" she asked as she approached Greer. "And where do you suppose that is, child?"

Greer was old, decades older than Martine looked, but Martine's face had an age to it that dwarfed him. Greer was a short-lived creature near the end of his life, but Martine was timeless.

"You defy God's will with your presence here," Greer spat. He had Lambert's rapier in one hand, but he didn't look inclined to use it. "Your very existence has become a blasphemy and it is my duty to correct this."

"Who knew that Eighth House zealotry could finally be useful?" Root murmured quietly from beside her. She rested her hand on Shaw's arm. "Martine first, and then the old man."

"You got my back?"

"Right behind you, sweetie."

Shaw grabbed the balcony railing with one hand and leapt over it in a single fluid motion. There was a long moment of rushing air roaring in her ears as she hurtled towards the ground but she could already see a writhing mass of bones forming below her. Skeletal arms sprang up and formed a bony net to break her fall. She hit the bone net (which was not in any way comfortable and was going to leave some bruises) and bounced up to her feet, knives drawn.

On the far end of the room, the two Lyctors turned to look at her. Martine's mouth curled into a grin that made Shaw's blood run cold.

"Oh, look, we have guests."

Greer chose that moment to strike, his rapier stabbing right into her chest. Martine looked down at it in amusement and then raised her fist. A spur of bone punched through the skin on the back of her hand, forming a blade, and she punched Greer in the face with it so hard he fell over backwards. She pulled the rapier out of her chest and tossed it aside carelessly.

"I'll deal with you two children later. If you're still alive."

Shaw took a step towards her and then halted at the ground lurched under her feet. A huge form erupted from the floor, scattering tiles everywhere. Gigantic skeletal arms and legs took shape amid a sea of bone tentacles, and an enormous skull with glowing eyes stared down at her from atop the construct that she'd last seen kill Kelli in the basement.

"She sends a skeleton against Ninth House?" Root asked with contempt from behind Shaw.

Shaw hadn't even noticed how Root had gotten down to the floor, but her necromancer stepped up next to her and faced the monstrous construct.

"Let's show her which house invented skeletons, Shaw."

"You didn't invent--"

"Go!"

Shaw went, springing forwards with every bit of speed she possessed, hurling herself into the awaiting maw of bone. Her knives flashed out like extensions of her own arms and sliced through whips of bone, shredding joints and dismembering legs. By all rights, she should have been impaled instantly the way Kelli had been, but something seemed to be protecting her, turning back the most dangerous attacks. A thin whip made of finger bones flew at her, aimed right at her face, but it crumbled to dust before it reached her. She looked through the rain of bone shards, falling around her like snow, to see Root behind her, blood running from her nose and her eyes lit up with a savage pleasure. Shaw didn't think she'd ever seen her enjoy herself more.

She didn't have time to watch though, because she was still in a fight for her life. She ducked under a huge blade-arm and skewered the knee of the construct, making it lurch. A flash of movement out of the corner of her eye announced the arrival of reinforcements in the form of three skeletons, the finest she'd ever seen Root make. The skeletons marched past Shaw and wrapped themselves around the construct's legs, pulling it further off balance.

"Shaw, I need to use your eyes again!" Root called through the din.

"Fuck that!" Shaw beat back two skeleton spears and shattered a leg bone with her elbow.

"This is no time to be coy, Shaw. We both know you like letting me inside you."

"Not like that!" Shaw sneezed bone dust out of her nose. "Fine, whatever, just hurry up."

It was easier this time, letting Root slide into her mind. Everything got sharper, like each individual fragment of bone was harshly outlined, and again she could see lights glowing within the framework of the construct. She sheathed one knife and drew her rapier instead, ready to strike.

_To your left, right above your head._

The voice was like a whisper in the back of her mind. She chose to overlook the new annoyance of Root being able to talk _inside her head_ and instead turned and struck, driving the point of her blade into bone. The bone crumbled away under her sword and the construct made a horrible noise like a muffled bellow of rage. A huge pointed spear of bone rushed at her, but four skeletons jumped in front of it and took the blow for her.

Another skeleton ran past her and threw itself into the hole her rapier had carved and then...melted--it turned to something like putty or glue and crawled over the bone, holding it fast. The construct tried to shake it off, and bones fragments crumbled everywhere, but the bone goop repaired itself faster than the construct could destroy it.

Apparently all Root's nerdy note taking had resulted in her figuring out how to make regenerating ash like the kind that had gummed up the lock.

_Behind you. Knee level. The joint._

She turned and struck again and again as Root's orders kept coming and each time she attacked there was a skeleton right behind to crawl into the construct and melt against it like macabre wax candles. The construct was still regenerating, but it was more and more pressed to stay upright with its arms and legs encased in perpetual bone.

"Get back!" Root yelled out loud this time and Shaw sprang back to crouch on the edge of the ruined fountain. The besieged construct glared down at her with its glowing green eyes and then collapsed to the floor, its limbs useless in the bone casing.

Shaw risked a look back at Root finally and found her grinning maniacally through a mask of blood, her black robes spotted white from bone dust. Shaw started to call out to her, but something hit her hard in the stomach and sent her flying. She had a surreal and peaceful view of the rain falling through the ruined ceiling as she hurtled across the room and then reality came back as she crashed into something large and much softer than she'd expected.

There was a pained grunt from whatever she'd hit and she blinked a few times to try and focus. Blue cloth.

"I think you broke my fucking ribs," Reese groaned.

"You shouldn't have been standing where I was falling."

She staggered to her feet to find Root in front of her, her face full of concern. Once she saw that Shaw was upright and relatively unharmed, her face split into a grin.

"Did you see that, Shaw? No necromancer in the galaxy could do what I did here today."

Shaw looked over her shoulder at the trapped and thrashing construct. "Other than a Lyctor, you mean."

"Where are the Lyctors?" Reese asked as he leveraged himself up from the floor. He winced and clutched at his ribs.

"Let me fix that for you."

Root's hand flashed out before Reese could object and touched his shoulder. His face turned white and a pained whimper escaped his throat. After a second he straightened up and backed away, his arm curled over his chest protectively.

"Was that necessary?"

"You're no use to us broken," Root said. "Did you find the others?"

"They're getting things into place. I came to see how you were doing."

"Excellent." Root turned back to Shaw and brushed a thumb over her cheek that probably smeared her face paint rather than removed any dirt. "You look so good like this, Sameen."

Shaw stared flatly back at her. "Your entire face is covered in blood."

"I know." Root sounded pleased. And then her eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out.

Shaw caught her before she hit the ground and propped her up against the wall to rest. She even made a half-hearted attempt to wipe some of the blood off her face, but it just made her face paint mix with the blood so she looked even more ghastly.

"She'll be fine in like ten minutes," Shaw said in response to Reese's questioning look. "She does this a lot."

A crash from the other side of the room caught their attention and they both turned in time to see John Greer fly through the air and crash into something out of their view.

"Looks like the Lyctors are still getting to know each other." Shaw looked around until she spotted her rapier where it had landed in a pile of tiles and bone. She'd managed to hold onto both her knives somehow and the rapier didn't seem damaged. Sufficiently armed again, she started picking her way across the room, staying clear of the trapped construct.

There were large doors on the clearer side of the room that had been demolished at some point in one of the many fights going on here, and beyond them was an outdoor veranda, empty and grey under the rainy sky. Shaw didn't go out on the veranda, but skirted the edge of the doorway, her boots splashing in the puddles. From there she could see around the construct to the far side of the room where the Lyctors had been fighting. There were more bones on this side, piles of them as if an army of skeletons had been crushed. What there wasn't was any sign of the two Lyctors.

Shaw cursed under her breath. Martine could be anywhere now. She was about to go back to where the others waited when a pile of bones near her rearranged itself, the bones all falling into a neat circular pattern on the floor to reveal what had been hidden beneath them.

Martine stepped through the wreckage and stood before Shaw, blood on her lips and her elegant rapier in her hand.

"I am Martine the First," she said. "Lyctor of the Great Resurrection, the Seventh Saint to serve the King Undying. I am a necromancer and I am a cavalier. I have come home to kill the Emperor and burn his houses." She raised her blade and pointed it at Shaw. "And that starts with you, Shaw the Ninth."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me about fourth house's corpse explosion specialty: i just think it's neat


	15. Lyctors

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was primarily what made me use the graphic depictions of violence tag, so be warned there is some awesome but gross necromancy stuff incoming.

Shaw should have died right then and there--Martine was a Lyctor and she was stronger and faster than any opponent Shaw had ever fought, and that was without even taking the infinite necromantic power into account--but Martine stepped back instead and flowed into a perfect cavalier stance. There was no chain around her wrist now (lost in her fight with Greer perhaps), and she presented Shaw with her side, front foot pointed forwards and back foot further back at a right angle to the front foot to support her.

"Your dead cavalier had good posture," Shaw said as she raised her paired knives. The reach of a rapier would have been nice here, but she was already at a disadvantage so she was sticking to the weapons she knew best.

"She did," Martine agreed. "All our cavaliers had honed their art to perfection. That stolen sword you wear at your side belonged to one of them, though I didn't much care for her."

Shaw paced sideways trying to give herself more room to retreat if needed. "Seems like you didn't much care for your own cavalier either if you killed her to make yourself immortal."

The flash of pure rage in Martine's eyes was unexpected and Shaw saw her own death there, but it only lasted a second, chased away by a mocking smile. "And here I thought you were the clever one."

She advanced with no warning and only some deeply ingrained instinct made Shaw dodge back. The elegant Seventh House rapier narrowly missed impaling Shaw's shoulder. She moved in, getting up close where her knives would be useful.

With her rapier still extended, Martine shouldn't have been able to block the knife aimed at her heart, but Shaw's blade met resistance. A curved spur of bone extended from the back of Martine's hand like a dagger and easily held back the knife. Martine smiled.

"You're not bad. You and your little necromancer would make quite the Lyctor together. Tell me, will you kneel willingly for the blow or will you wait for her to give into temptation?"

Shaw answered by slamming her forehead into Martine's nose, which broke with a satisfying crunch. She stabbed her knife into Martine's side--aiming for a kidney--and then yanked it back out with a twist of her wrist. Martine staggered back, spitting blood and clutching her side. For a moment Shaw thought she might actually have done some damage, but then there was a sickening _crack_ as Martine's nose straightened itself out, and Martine grinned at her through the blood.

"More of a brawler than a cavalier, aren't you?" She coughed, more blood spilling from between her lips to spatter the floor, and once the coughing started it seemed like she couldn't stop. It was a horrible, thick, wet noise that Shaw would have expected to hear coming from a death bed rather than a battlefield. Realization dawned on her.

"You have that whole hereditary cancer of Seventh House necromancers thing," she said as Martine wiped the blood and some yellow pus off her face with the back of her hand. "You've just been hiding it this whole time."

"It wasn't easy, I assure you," Martine said, voice grating from her ruined throat. "Corwin got off lightly. I killed her quickly and then only had to make sure she looked a little ill from time to time. Child's play."

"What happened to her cavalier? Her _real_ cavalier."

"Both of them left this world in their shuttle on the way here, I'm afraid. Her actual cavalier was stashed in my room until I decided to rid myself of the bodies. They'd served their purpose." Martine raised her rapier again. "I admire your attempts to stall me, but far better that you die before I get to your necromancer. No cavalier wants to watch their necromancer die."

Shaw was ready for the attack this time, but the speed and force of it was still overwhelming. She blocked and dodged and danced back under Martine's assault until her feet hit wet stone. She'd backed right out onto the rainy terrace.

"Your horrible skull face is going to run out here," Martine said as she followed her out into the misting rain. She flicked her rapier and the blood on the blade spattered across the wet ground. Shaw hadn't even noticed when she'd been hit, but she could feel it now, a deep cut on her side oozing hot blood.

"Well, I suppose you aren't really of the Ninth, are you?" Martine continued as she paced forwards, ancient and inevitable. "Too cold for Sixth and not cold enough for Ninth. Where would you ever belong, Shaw?"

The doorway behind Martine exploded in a shower of wooden splinters and a skeletal bone blade twice as tall as Shaw punched directly through Martine's chest, the force of it sending her hurtling forwards, right off the end of the blade. She tumbled across the terrace, a wide trail of blood in her wake, and fell in a ragged heap on the edge near the broken railing.

"She belongs with her necromancer." Root stood in the doorway underneath the upper half of the skeletal construct, sheltered in its ribcage. The construct was missing its legs and must have pulled itself along the ground with its many tentacles. Its eyes were red now instead of green and it made no move to attack either Shaw or Root.

"You okay, Sameen?"

"Just a few scratches. What the fuck did you do to that thing?" She cautiously approached the construct, but it made no move to attack her.

"The theorems holding it together are quite simple once you understand them," Root said, patting a piece of a skeletal rib like the giant monster was her pet. "I could have picked them apart perhaps, like we did with the one in the challenge, but why waste all this effort? I...altered them a little. Staged a hostile takeover. All her bones are belong to me now."

"You hacked her skeleton," Shaw said flatly. No need to let Root know how impressed she was.

"I--" Root looked past her in alarm and threw one hand out. A rain of bone chips sprayed onto the balcony and a yellow-white wall sprang up behind Shaw. It was a solid piece of bone with no cracks or joints in it and it shuddered violently as something slammed into the back of it.

"Inside, now!" Root ordered.

Shaw darted in, skirting around the huge construct as best she could. Her feet skidded on the tiles as she got clear of the terrace. Root ducked out from under the construct to follow her as the wall of bone she'd made exploded to reveal an extremely pissed off Lyctor. Martine looked fucking awful now, with a giant hole in her chest giving Shaw a great view of her organs that she definitely wasn't going to be able to unsee anytime soon. Fortunately her skin was rapidly knitting shut over the gaping wound.

Actually that was pretty unfortunate, come to think of it.

"Root, she's healing."

Root stepped up to pat her horrible pet monster on one bony arm. "Mr. Bones, attack!"

The construct lurched forwards into the gaping hole between the room and the terrace, dragging itself across the floor and Shaw lost sight of Martine in a whirlwind of bone and marrow that flew through the air like confetti. She craned her neck to try and see the fight better and then quickly looked back down when she felt a cold draft on her stomach. Root had her shirt partly rolled up and was inspecting the nasty wound on her side.

"I think I could make a cast out of regenerating ash."

"Absolutely not." Shaw batted her hands away and fixed her shirt. "You are not putting your weird bone goop on me, thank you."

Root looked disappointed.

"Did you seriously name the fucking skeleton death monster _Mr. Bones_?"

"What's wrong with Mr. Bones?"

Shaw closed her eyes, willed herself to forget the last five seconds of her life, and then opened them again. "I had an idea," she said, hoping to get them back to the tiny matter of the ancient evil that was mere meters away shredding Root's horrible pet skeleton monster. "But I'm not sure if it's possible."

"Tell me."

"You know how you did that really fucked up thing where you looked through my eyes to see the construct theorem-y things? Your knowledge of necromancy guiding my fighting, right?"

They both paused as a tremendous crash came from the terrace and the construct shook. Shaw grabbed Root's arm and steered her further into the room, back towards where she'd last seen Reese.

"Do you think we could do the reverse?" she asked as they walked.

"In what way?"

"Use my knowledge to guide your necromancy."

"I told you, I can't read your mind, Shaw. It's only your physical senses I can borrow."

It had been worth a shot. "Okay, so what if I explained what to do in advance and you just...zapped stuff."

That was rewarded by the rare occurrence of _both_ of Root's eyebrows being raised simultaneously. "Zapped."

"Necromanced. I don't know. Look, Lyctor bitch has cancer--you know, the type they prize in Seventh House because they have extreme issues beyond even the issues you lot have. It's a type of blood cancer according to Teacher--" His ramblings had proven useful finally. "--most likely due to an accelerated production of abnormal white blood cells, and it's really advanced. Judging by her symptoms she also has some type of bacterial lung disease."

The resources on blood cancer in the vast Sixth House libraries had been extensive, though the resources on _everything_ in the Sixth House libraries had been extensive which was the only remaining reason she had to miss the place.

"You want me to...zap her cancer?"

"No--" Shaw smiled grimly, remembering the way Kelli and Daniel had been killed. It was fitting to get revenge with the knowledge of Sixth House. "--I want you to make it worse. Much, much worse."

* * *

Root was not a very good pupil. She was extremely clever and caught on fast and had enough of a grasp of the inner workings of the human body that she could pick up on what Shaw was outlining, but she kept making faces and muttering disparaging things about 'flesh magic' which were not helpful considering they only had minutes to figure this out before their certain violent death finished decimating the unfortunate Mr. Bones.

"The longer you can keep her from realizing what you're up to, the better," Shaw said. "She can heal wounds, like we saw, but whatever this cancer is, she's had it for over ten thousand years so far so she likely can't do much about it."

"Yes, fine, I'll be discreet about destroying her innards, but I'm going to need to get closer to her, probably touch her for a second or two to establish a link, like how I did with you in the siphoning challenge."

"That's going to be tricky." Shaw didn't want either of them getting within range of Martine. "We're going to need a distraction."

"What does this mean in terms of the other part of the plan?" Reese asked. He'd found them back on the far side of the room. Shaw wasn't sure what he'd been up to, but he was covered in bone dust.

There was a loud sound of splintering bones and part of the massive skeletal construct flew backwards into the room and smashed into a wall.

"I think that we're going to need all the plans and possibly more plans we haven't thought of yet to stand a chance," Root said cheerfully.

"The others need more time," Reese said with grim acceptance in his voice. He must have calculated their odds and gotten the same results as Shaw.

"Guess that's our job then."

Martine stalked back into the room, soaked from the rain. Her body was covered with cuts and oozing wounds and one of her legs didn't look so great. The meat of her cheek had been ripped away to expose her teeth and gums beneath. She surveyed the room with a chilling calm even as her body reformed itself. Shaw saw the bone in her leg move under the skin and pop back into place.

"It's superficial," Root muttered next to her. "She's closing the wounds, but the damage beneath isn't healing as quickly."

Martine turned to look right at them and her lips drew back in a snarl that did horrible things to the gaping hole in her face. Shaw readied her knives and placed herself in front of her necromancer. Reese stepped up beside her, buckler and rapier out.

"Here we go."

Except they didn't go anywhere because the ground exploded beneath Martine's feet at that moment and a figure shining in white and blue light emerged from the floor and ran her through with a rapier. John Greer's robes had given up all pretense of being white now and his fancy chainmail shirt was barely holding together, but he looked more focused now than he had earlier.

"Must have beaten Lambert's soul into submission," said Shaw.

Martine looked down at the sword in her chest and then back at the other Lyctor.

"I am very tired of getting stabbed today." She grabbed the rapier blade in her bare hand and yanked it out, making Greer stumble back. "I think it's time I returned the favor in kind."

The Lyctors flew at each other, their blades moving so fast that Shaw had trouble keeping up. Scattered fragments of bone from the floor rose up around Martine and shot at Greer from all sides. Blood flew through the air, possibly from both of them, and a minor explosion rocked the room and took out the last pieces of the fountain.

"Reese, go help the others. Anything to speed it up," Shaw ordered. "We've got the best distraction we can hope for now."

"What if she kills him?"

"The Ninth will hold her here," said Root with confidence that Shaw didn't fully share. "Run along, John."

Reese hesitated, but then nodded and retreated towards the hall. "I'll be back when it's ready," he said as he left.

Which left the Ninth House alone with two very angry Lyctors.

"Guess it's now or never," Shaw said to Root. "You go do your thing and I'll cover you if she turns around."

"You'll cover me how, exactly?" Root asked dubiously.

"Look, if you're trying to maintain some kind of sneaky link to her, you're going to need to focus on that. Just trust me, okay?" She drew her knife; it'd be the best weapon for what she had in mind.

Greer was providing a very good distraction for them and Martine's back was already to them. She was standing in front of the ruined pieces of the fountain which they crept through to get closer. Another explosion of masonry rocked the room and pieces of ceiling rained down on them.

Martine took half a step back, and Root struck, straightening up from behind a piece of stone. Her hand shot out and grabbed the back of Martine's neck--which had to be the least stealthiest move possible--and her eyes shut in concentration.

Martine's reaction was almost instant: she pulled away and spun around to face them. She raised one arm, but Shaw had been ready for that. Her knife flashed out and sank into the flesh of Martine's forearm. Except...it didn't quite. The blade stopped short as if it had hit steel. Martine smirked at her and that might have been game over right there if Greer hadn't chosen that moment to hit Martine from behind with something that made portions of her skin start to slough away. Martine tsked in annoyance and jerked her arm to the side, sending Shaw's knife flying away to clatter on the floor. Something horrible hit Shaw full force in the stomach and made her stagger back, the breath knocked out of her.

"Wait your turn," Martine said. And then she was gone.

Shaw turned to check on Root, but Root had vanished. She found her behind the largest chunk of fountain debris, sitting cross legged, her eyes shut and her face clenched in a frown of concentration. Shaw ducked down next to her. It was shitty cover, but near Martine from the sounds of the fight on the other side. Hopefully neither Lyctor threw more stonework at them.

"You know what I need?" Martine called conversationally above the sounds of the fight. Shaw peeked around the edge of the fountain to see Martine had advanced on Greer who was breathing hard and drenched in blood sweat.

"A snack." Martine's arm shot out and her hand clamped down on Greer's neck. She lifted him off the ground as if he weighed nothing. Shaw saw the color draining from Greer's face as Martine siphoned power out of him greedily. Martine smiled in triumph, but, after a second her smile faltered. The color didn't return to Greer's face, but he didn't get any worse either. She lowered him to the floor, teeth gritted.

Martine might have been a centuries old Lyctor, but siphoning was Eighth House's specialty. It didn't look like Greer stood a chance of turning things around, but he seemed to be holding her off to some extent.

Shaw checked on Root--who was still in the midst of her necromantic trance thing--and when she peered out again, Greer must have done something, because Martine released him and took a step back. Wounds on her body and face reopened slowly, her skin peeling back. Root had been right: underneath she hadn't healed at all yet. Greer smirked.

"Enough of this." Martine's arm shot forwards and right through his chest. She ripped his heart out in one clean move and tossed it aside without a second glance, then, before his body could fall, she repeated the move but this time removed his jugular in a gush of blood.

"Well, that escalated quickly," Shaw said under her breath.

Martine didn't seem concerned with them just yet as she stood over Greer's body, her entire left arm coated in fresh blood.

"I'll dispose of you properly later," she said to what was hopefully a corpse, "but it pays to be cautious, I suppose. Even at my age." She raised her rapier.

"Don't think I'd use a blade like that to dismember a corpse," Shaw said to no one in particular as she watched the grisly proceedings. She checked on Root again who had her eyes open now.

"Well?"

Root nodded. "I think that worked. It might take her a minute to realize. We should probably not be here when that happens."

"We need to move then."

Martine was still in the midst of doing things to the corpse that produced sickening wet sounds and didn't look up as they quietly retreated to the far side of the room. Root swayed on her feet, but she looked determined.

Reese wasn't back yet when they got to the door near the end of the hall.

"We need to give him more time," Shaw said, frustrated but resigned.

She wasn't sure how they were going to handle it, but even with Root exhausted and herself still bleeding slowly from her side, they were in better shape than Martine. If it was only for a few more minutes….

The attack came out of nowhere, a rain of razor-sharp bone fragments pelting down on them from above. Root managed to stop the worst of it, but Shaw felt one pierce her leg and blood ran down into her eye from another cut on her forehead.

Without further consulting, they dashed for the doorway leading to the hall. The door was long since gone--maybe even before today--and there were no side rooms off the main corridor to retreat into. Root skidded to a halt inside the doorway and turned back. She raised her hands and another solid wall of bone like the one she'd made on the terrace rose from the ground to block the doorway.

Shaw watched her strain to finish the wall and, much to her surprise, the bone curved back over and around them, trapping them inside a solid sphere in the dark. A single thin crack on the back of the dome let in a sliver of light, just enough for Shaw to see Root slump and collapse to her knees.

"Is this going to hold?" Shaw asked as she knelt down next to her exhausted necromancer.

"Not on its own, but if I keep repairing it, then maybe." She slouched sideways to sit on the floor, propped up by one arm.

"Then if you pass out again, I'm getting us out of here." She sat next to Root and didn't try to stop her when she leaned against her side. It felt like Root might fall to the floor completely without the support.

Something slammed into the bone wall with the force of a battering ram and tiny cracks appeared throughout the bone. Root made a frustrated noise and the cracks healed, fusing back together.

"You can take some of my energy again, if you need it," Shaw offered. "Just not too much or I'll be the one falling over."

"No." Root sounded very firm. "I won't do that."

"You've done it twice now and I'm still kicking."

"I'm not planning to become a Lyctor, Shaw. The price is too high."

"This isn't that though, right? It's just a little boost. Listen, I fucking hate it, but it beats dying."

"No," Root said again and Shaw could tell she'd lost the fight. She tried again anyway.

"I'm just saying it'd be dumb not to use any advantage we have. I'm your cavalier. I'm supposed to do whatever it takes to keep you alive."

Root straightened up and shuffled around to kneel in front of where Shaw sat. The dim light made her blood-and-paint covered face ghostly and lit gleaming points of light in her eyes.

"What do cavaliers do, Shaw? In the Cohort, I mean. In combat. What purpose do they serve?"

"Uh, they keep their necromancers alive." Shaw was well and truly lost by the sudden turn in conversation especially with how menacing Root suddenly looked.

"And what else? Why do they need to keep them alive?"

"When the Cohort first launches an attack on a planet, there's no thanergy for necromancers to use," Shaw said, though surely Root knew all this? "The cavaliers enter combat first to kill enemies and in doing so provide fresh thanergenic energy from the deaths for their necromancers to work with."

"And what do the necromancers do in return?"

"Necromancy?" She rolled her eyes at Root's patronizing look. "They use the available thanergy to attack as well."

"What would happen if there were only cavaliers and no necromancers?"

"I mean it could depend on what they were up against, but it wouldn't be ideal." Necromancers were the most dangerous troops in the Cohort. Once they had thanergy to work with, they could bring destruction and death in massive quantities, but usually in short bursts. Necromancers were deadly, but vulnerable.

"Why didn't the bone construct kill you when we were fighting earlier?"

"What's with the twenty questions?" Shaw tried to lean back to get away from the very intense interrogative look on Root's face, but Root just leaned forwards to follow her. Shaw tried to remember the fight.

"You were holding off a lot of its attacks while I weakened it. What's the point of all this, Root?"

There was another crash against the bone wall and Root half-turned towards it, bracing herself on Shaw's shoulder with one hand, and raising the other to heal the cobweb of fissures. She was breathing hard when she turned back.

"The point, Shaw, is that cavaliers don't exist solely to protect their necromancers."

"But--"

"Cavaliers and necromancers exist to protect each other. Each is both an attacker and defender, a sword and a shield. It's a...a symbiosis."

"You're the one who was so insistent on going it alone when we got here," Shaw felt obligated to point out.

"I was," Root admitted. "And you're the one who proved me wrong."

Shaw stayed carefully silent. It wasn't that she disagreed, it was just that having it laid out so bluntly was uncomfortable. In the silence (broken only by the occasional sounds of an ancient god trying to murder them) she became aware that she'd put her hand on Root's hip to steady her earlier and never moved it after. And that Root's fingers were still digging into her shoulder. In the enclosed darkness, those two points of contact felt as intimate as an embrace.

"I've decided that I'm not interested in something that strengthens me at your expense," Root said. "That doesn't benefit either of us in the long run."

"If you were a Lyctor you wouldn't need a cavalier, though. That's kind of the point, right?"

"I need you alive more than I need to be a Lyctor," Root said in a carefully neutral tone.

"Uh, okay." It was the only thing Shaw could think to say. Becoming a Lyctor had been Root's way out of her impossible situation. How could Shaw's life possibly compare with that? ( _Not_ that she was volunteering, but still).

"Good." Root looked pleased. "And later, if we're still alive, I can think of something we can do that _will_ benefit both of us." She winked, or at least Shaw thought she did.

Shaw rolled her eyes, but breathed a little easier. "One thing at a time."

She was saved from further response by a very polite knock on the back wall of the bone sphere.

"Shaw?" Reese's voice was muffled.

"Let him in," Shaw said as she stood up.

The bone split and a doorway opened on the back that was short enough that Reese had to duck down significantly to look in.

"We're ready," he said.

Root got to her feet, only a little unsteadily. "It's showtime then."

* * *

They were halfway down the hall when the remains of Root's bone barricade finally collapsed. Shaw didn't stop to risk a look back and tightened her grip on Root's arm to drag her along. Root did turn back and did...something that sounded like she'd raised an entire skeletal army, but she didn't stop moving as she did.

"The fountain in the atrium," Reese said as they ran.

"How many did you get?" Shaw asked.

"Seven."

"Hopefully that's enough."

Shaw remembered this hallway from her first day exploring. Back then there'd been bright light streaming in through the windows instead of the washed out glow of the rainy skies. She knew it was most likely due just to the weather, but it really did seem like Canaan House had turned dark and lifeless with Teacher's death.

They burst out into the atrium where they'd all gathered that first day. By the large, dry fountain in the middle, three people were waiting. Tomas stood ready by Zoe's side, but Carter was short a cavalier of her own.

"Is she coming?" Carter asked as they approached.

There was a crash from the hallway behind them.

"Oh yeah," Shaw said. She drew her rapier and her remaining knife. Martine had said she knew the cavalier who'd owned this rapier before, and that she hadn't liked her. Would that cavalier have approved of the blade being used against Martine? Had the cavalier died willingly for their necromancer or been killed?

Martine strolled out of the hall like she had all the time in the world (which was quite possible given the whole immortality thing). She'd healed most of her more visible wounds, though the hole in her cheek remained. And she didn't look like she was doing so well: her steps weren't steady, and her skin looked yellow and unhealthy. As they watched, she bent over in a coughing fit that ended with her coughing up something purple and grey and shiny that might have been part of an internal organ at one point but was beyond recognition now. Root's medical operation must have worked.

"Oh good, you're all in one place," Martine rasped. "That makes things easier."

She lurched towards them, somehow still impossibly fast even now, and her target was clear. Shaw got in her way before she could get to Root, and their blades met in a clash.

"I did so want to fight you one day," Martine said as she disengaged. "But perhaps I should have killed you when I had the chance."

Reese charged her from one side, and Tomas from the other, and then the fight started in earnest. There was no way one swordswoman with a single blade should have been able to hold off three trained cavaliers, but Martine defied all reason. She sprouted another bone blade from her arm and spit blood on the floor in front of Shaw that hissed and smoked. More bone shards filled the air (that Shaw could have sworn Martine had ripped from inside her own body) and flew at Shaw even as Tomas and Reese had to deflect lightning fast attacks that drove them back.

The bone shards froze in mid air and then rocketed _back_ towards Martine before falling to the ground just short of her. The necromancers had entered the fray as well now. The fight was a chaotic blur of blades and bone, but Shaw could still pick out each necromancer's style: Root was obviously responsible for the skeleton arms sprouting from the floor to grab at Martine's legs, the spikes of blood shooting through the air like they were spears had to come from a necromancer of Third House, and Carter was doing what Shaw recognized as siphoning, pulling energy directly from Martine and giving it to (Shaw checked) John Reese strangely enough.

Reese threw himself into the fight, bashing Martine with his spiked shield. The big spike pierced her chest and sprayed a mess of blood and ooze everywhere, though Martine scarcely seemed to notice. She blocked Tomas's trident spear with her hand, the longest point going right through her palm, and then ripped it out of his grasp and hurled it away before closing in on him. Shaw stabbed her in the back to give Tomas time to retreat.

"Why are you all fighting so hard?" Martine asked as she twirled to thrust at Shaw with her blade. "For the Emperor? You think he'll reward you for failing to become Lyctors and then killing one of his last remaining ones?"

"You're trying to kill us," Shaw reminded her as she parried. Had Root given her brain rot as well?

"Oh, yes, I suppose I am." Martine whipped her blade around expertly and scored a stinging line up Shaw's arm that made her drop her last knife. Whatever Carter was doing to the Lyctor made her face look thinned out to the point she could have been mistaken for a corpse.

Shaw fell back, cradling her hurt arm and desperately blocking the rain of blows from Martine's blade. Reese tried to assist, but he hit some invisible wall and fell back with a pained grunt. Shaw kept backing up until her foot hit something solid. The fountain. She jumped back and landed in a crouch on the edge, her hurt leg only just supporting her weight, and then danced back along the edge. Something grabbed the back of her shirt and hauled her back and she sprawled on the ground at Root's feet.

"Get clear," Root warned and Shaw dragged herself back towards the far wall.

Martine had made it to the fountain now and picked her way dainty along the rim as if she wasn't leaking blood and guts all over. She strode towards Root, an evil gleam in her eye...and then froze. She looked down into the fountain.

Shaw knew what she'd see there even though she'd only had a brief glance: seven bodies laid out along the bottom of the dry fountain bed. The Fifth House cavalier and necromancer, Daniel, Teacher, and the priests that the others had been able to find. Root raised her hand, shaky but determined.

Martine looked back up at her. "Oh, fu--"

The bodies all exploded at once in a burst of blue light and flying gobs of flesh. Carter did something to shield the rest of them from the blast, since Root and Zoe had both been occupied with detonating the corpses.

There was a sudden silence after the explosion, broken only by the thunks and splats of the corpse shrapnel hitting the ground. Nothing stirred in the smoking crater left by the simultaneous explosion of seven corpses. Shaw climbed back to her feet and limped forwards to check for herself.

A figure rose up from the smoking remains, barely recognizable as human at all. Martine's skin was gone in many places showing off her dying organs which were speckled with debris. One of her eyes was a bloody ruin, and her left arm was completely gone. Her rapier had survived intact, though the blade was discolored and the hilt basket dented. Her remaining eye sought out Shaw and she snarled through ruined lips.

"Come on, then."

Her strike was aimed at Root, but Shaw knew it for the bait it was. She took the bait and pushed Root to the side to parry. Martine's thrust was pushed out of line easily--too easily--and Shaw saw the hint of a smile on her face before her blade ran Martine through one last time, a clean strike through the heart.

Martine fell and this time did not rise. Shaw staggered back a few steps and sat down hard on her butt on the floor as her leg gave out under her.

"She dead?" she asked, just in case.

All three necromancers crept up to inspect the damage.

"Very dead," Zoe pronounced.

"Definitely," Carter said.

"We should burn the body to be sure," Root suggested with possibly too much malevolent glee in her voice. Shaw watched the way she was swaying in place with a wary eye.

"I think we can manage that," Carter agreed.

Shaw tuned out as the necromancers started discussing the necessity of dismemberment and finally took the time to examine her injuries. There was still a nasty chunk of bone right in her calf and a deep cut on her thigh. The cut on her left arm was the most concerning. She needed to get back to her room and get her medical supplies before she bled to death.

"I can help with that." Zoe stood before her, the bottom of her elegant golden robes caked with blood and grime.

"Not going to say no right now," Shaw agreed. She nodded at Tomas when he came to join them. Third House looked unscathed in comparison to the rest of them.

"What happened to Dani Silva?" Shaw asked as Zoe examined her arm. She flinched when she felt the skin on her arm _twitch_.

"Carter didn't exactly say," Tomas said, "but I got the impression she was still hurt badly enough that Carter hadn't wanted to risk her."

"Carter drugged her," Zoe clarified. "Can't imagine a cavalier letting their necromancer go into combat without them otherwise. I don't envy Carter when Dani wakes up." Zoe released her arm which looked better though not perfect. "I fixed as much of the deeper tissue damage as I could, but I'm going to need some rest before I can do more," Zoe explained. "At least you won't die in the meantime."

"Not this way anyway," Shaw said. "We should go make sure Greer is really dead."

"John said Martine had ripped him apart," Zoe got to her feet and dusted herself off. "But I suppose we should check. I'm interested to see the remains of what John called the most impressive necromancy battle he'd ever seen."

"Martine also said something about coming back later to dispose of him. Might as well add him to the Lyctor bonfire."

As Third House retreated, Root appeared and took Zoe's place crouched down in front of Shaw. She looked about as rough as Shaw had ever seen her which was saying quite a lot.

"If you die now, I'm going to be pissed," Shaw said. She tested her injured arm and, finding that it mostly worked again, ripped off the tattered remains of her robe sleeve.

"Your concern is touching," Root said, "but I'm fine."

"Uh-huh." Shaw grasped the piece of bone stuck in her leg and yanked it out. She wrapped the ripped cloth around the wound. It only had to last long enough for her to get back to her room. "Good job with the corpse bomb thing. Didn't know a bone adept could pull that off."

"Well, I'd just seen Kara Stanton do it earlier, so it wasn't hard to replicate," Root gloated.

The whole 'most powerful necromancer in the galaxy' thing was a lot more believable after the day they'd had. Minus the other Lyctors still out there, of course. Which brought up a good question.

"What are we going to do if the Emperor or the other Lyctors are pissed we killed their buddy?"

Root didn't answer, and Shaw looked up just in time to see her eyes lose focus as she passed out yet again. She collapsed forwards right into Shaw's lap and Shaw caught her as best she could.

"She okay?" It was Carter, her Cohort uniform stained and spattered. Whatever injury she'd suffered earlier didn't seem to have slowed her down much. Reese hovered behind her like he was cavalier.

"Yeah, she does this a lot," Shaw said as she checked Root's pulse. "I should take her somewhere she can rest."

"If she did even half of what John told me she did…" Carter shook her head. "It's probably too much to hope she'd be willing to train some of the Cohort necromancers."

Shaw tried to imagine Root dealing with the formality and rigidity of the Cohort and failed. She'd become convinced that the only reason Root managed any sort of decorum on the Ninth was that she was in charge.

"I'll take her to our room and then come back and help with the cleanup." She tried to stand up with Root in her arms and fell back on her ass almost immediately. Reese stepped up to pick Root up off of her until she got up on her feet.

"I think both of you should rest for a few hours," Carter said critically. "The Ninth led the charge on this one and took the brunt of the damage. Let the rest of us deal with this part."

Shaw only staggered but didn't fall over when she took Root's unconscious body back from Reese. "We're going to need to figure out what our next move is." She adjusted her grip on Root whose blood-caked hair kept getting in her face. Maybe she should just dump her in the tub.

"We can take care of that in a few hours," Carter said firmly. "Go rest."

If Shaw had felt even slightly less terrible she might have argued, but instead she nodded and limped away with her sleeping burden.

The walk back to their rooms was slow and painful, but there was a distinct lack of anyone trying to murder them which was a nice change. The quiet familiarity of their rooms was surreal after the chaos of the last few hours, as if their fight should have torn the whole building to shreds.

Shaw exhaled in relief when she placed Root on the bed. She took off Root's shoes and most of her robes as politely as possible (more to make sure she didn't have any injuries she'd neglected to mention than to make her comfortable) and pulled the blankets over her. Root's paint and blood and sweat had all run together to turn her face into a morbid mess, but on her it looked kind of good.

...and clearly Shaw was suffering from blood loss and possibly brain damage if she was thinking shit like that. She left Root to sleep and gathered her medical supplies.

It took a lot of warm water to clean all the blood off herself, and most of her remaining supplies to clean and bandage her wounds well. There'd probably be scars, but if that was the worst she walked out with then she couldn't complain.

It didn't even occur to her to try sleeping on the floor this time. Her whole body hurt like she'd been bounced down a flight of stairs covered in razor blades and that meant she was sleeping in the damn bed. Also, it meant she'd be closer to Root if somehow one of the Lyctors magically reappeared.

Her rapier, the only blade she had left, got leaned up against the bed near her and she crawled under the covers and rolled over a few times to find the least painful position to lie in. From the other side of the bed she could hear Root's deep, steady breathing, a reassuring sign after the day they'd had.

She'd expected to be unable to fall asleep since her whole body still felt on alert and tightly wound from the fight, but within seconds she felt the foggy haze of sleep overtaking her. Later, there would be an empire's worth of problems to sort out, but for now there was peace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously this is ending very differently from the book. The difference has nothing to do with my opinion of the end of the book (which I loved!), but because the book is the first in a trilogy whereas this is a standalone that I wanted to end on a bit less of a cliffhanger. There's going to be a bunch of unresolved things because those things were also unresolved in the books, but I hope the ending in the next chapter is still satisfactory. 
> 
> There were two endings I could have gone with for this: the one you're getting, and one that would have been major spoilers for the second book. I thought about going the second route, but decided that dumping a big reveal from the second book directly on top of one from the first book was Too Much and would detract from the story overall. Also less spoilers this way.
> 
> I watched some HEMA rapier duels to try and get a feel for rapier combat, but in the end I kind of cheated and ended up using more of what I remembered from fencing (which I did forever ago, so not much!). So if you're a HEMA fanatic and I wrote something Wrong I am sorry. I'm still very confused about how one would use a chain offhand (Martine's was supposed to be something like a kusari-fundo) with a rapier since a chain weapon seems to require specific movement and axis of attack and that's not something you'd want to be dictated by your off hand weapon, but I'm definitely out of my wheelhouse on that one. 
> 
> The last chapter is shorter and just wraps things up. No big twists or surprises to worry about. I'll post it within the next two days.


	16. Ninth House

Shaw woke up when Root got out of bed. She lifted her head enough to watch Root totter precariously across the room to the bathroom and disappear inside. Hopefully she didn't pass out in there because there was no way Shaw was getting out of the warm bed.

Except after fifteen minutes with no sign of Root, that was exactly what Shaw found herself doing. Her injured leg had stiffened up while she slept and almost buckled when she put weight on it. She cursed and limped across the floor to the bathroom door and knocked.

No response.

She tried the handle and found the door unlocked. The lights were on in the bathroom and were harsh on her eyes after the darkness of the bedroom. There was a mess of towels by the sink--more than she'd left there earlier--and then there was Root, sitting on the floor slumped against the wall next to the sink, sound asleep again and completely naked.

Her face was clear of paint and blood and her hair was wet, so she must have cleaned herself up and then been too exhausted to make it back to bed. Shaw rolled her eyes and limped back out of the bathroom. Root's room was too much of a mess for her to find anything in the dark so she went to her own room and hunted through her bag to find a shirt and pair of soft shorts that she preferred to sleep in.

Root hadn't budged when she got back so she nudged her with one foot.

"Root, wake up."

Root jolted awake. She scrambled to stand, but slipped and landed back on her ass on the floor. Her eyes were wide and frightened when she looked up, but relief washed over her face when she saw Shaw.

"You can't sleep here," Shaw said, unsure what had just happened and unsure if she wanted to know. "Here."

She offered Root a hand up, though the process of pulling her to her feet almost ended with Shaw falling over. What a pathetic pair they made right now.

"Put these on," Shaw said, pushing the clothes into Root's arms.

Root clutched the clothes to her chest rather than doing anything useful with them. "I was having a dream," she said.

Shaw tried not to let her impatience show. "Let's go back to bed and you can have all the dreams you want there."

Root finally looked at the clothes Shaw had brought her and actually managed to pull them in without either of them falling over again. She tugged on the bottom of the shirt as she examined it. "These are yours."

"Your room is a mess. Now come on."

They both managed to make it back to the bed, Root weaving unsteadily and Shaw limping painfully. Shaw crawled back under the covers, searching for the warm spot she'd vacated. She sighed with relief and shut her eyes.

"We were hiding from something," Root said from much closer than Shaw had expected her to be.

"What? When?"

"In my dream." The bed shifted and she could feel how close Root was now even if they weren't touching. "We were hiding, but you were hurt--we both were I think--and I thought we were going to die, but then…." She trailed off.

"That wasn't a dream, Root. That's just what our day was like." Depressing to think about.

"No, this time was different. This time there was nowhere to run to and whatever was chasing us was about to find us, but then you went and…." She stopped again.

Shaw opened her eyes finally. Even though Root was right next to her, she couldn't see her face, partly because it was extremely dark, but also because Root was curled in on herself, head bowed to her chest.

"What did I do?" Shaw asked warily.

Root didn't respond but she shuffled a few millimeters closer to Shaw in the darkness.

Shaw considered her options. She could retreat to her own room and sleep on the floor which would be less comfortable but less complicated, but that would probably upset Root and for some annoying reason she didn't want to upset her. She could also just lie right here as still as possible and hope they both fell back asleep without saying anymore, but she didn't think she'd be able to sleep like that. Her last option was the absolute worst, but it was the only one that maybe ended up with both of them getting to sleep. Deeply unfortunate, but what choice did she have?

"Okay, fine," she said. "Come here."

At first she thought Root actually had fallen back asleep, but then there was another rustling of the blankets and Root's legs bumped up against hers. Hands fisted in her shirt by her stomach as if Root was trying to hold her in place. Shaw thought about protesting, but it could have been much worse and at least Root wasn't covered in blood anymore. She was left in the awkward position of having nowhere to put her left arm though except what was truly the worst possible place.

She held out for another five seconds and then gave in and draped her arm over Root's side. Fortunately Root still had her head tucked down so Shaw was looking at her forehead rather than in her eyes, but she still heard Root's tiny sigh and Root's hands tightened their grip on her shirt.

"Did you actually have a bad dream, or did you just make it up to con me into this?" Shaw asked wearily.

"You'll never know," Root murmured sleepily. "Go to sleep, Sam."

Shaw didn't fall asleep right away, but Root was out cold again within seconds. Her fingers loosened their clutch on Shaw and her breathing grew deep and steady. Shaw could have reclaimed her arm and rolled away then, but instead she scooted a little closer-- _just_ so she could get her arm in a more comfortable position--and shut her eyes.

* * *

The next time Shaw woke up, it was to a sharp flash of pain. Her eyes flew open and she grabbed her attacker by the neck with a snarl.

Root smiled at her, calm as could be even with a hand around her throat.

"Your rib was cracked," she explained. "I fixed it for you."

"That couldn't have waited until I woke up?" Shaw asked. She hadn't noticed she'd cracked a rib, but it wasn't a surprise. How had Root known though? "Were you checking out my bones while I was asleep?"

"Can you blame me?"

"Yes."

Root didn't say anything but Shaw got the impression she was silently laughing at her. She released her with a glare. Root sat up on the bed next to Shaw, rubbing her throat with a thoughtful look. She'd cleaned herself up more, Shaw noted. She looked scrubbed clean, and her hair was damp again, though she was still wearing Shaw's clothes. Shaw must have been out cold to not have woken up with Root moving around that much.

"How long were we out?" she asked as she strained to look at the windows. The heavy curtains were closed, but there was still faint light peeking in around the edges.

"About fifteen hours by my estimate."

"What?" Shaw sat up. "Why didn't you wake me up sooner?"

"I only woke up an hour ago, and you looked so peaceful that I decided to let you rest."

"And then woke me up with unauthorized necromantic surgery."

Root shrugged and smiled. "I could break it again if it makes you feel better."

"Keep your necromancy out of my ribcage." At least Root hadn't mentioned what had happened in the middle of the night. Maybe they could both pretend it had been a dream.

She swung her legs over the side of the bed. The bandages were all still intact and there was no blood seeping through them. "Have you seen any sign of the others yet?"

"There was a note pushed under the door. We're supposed to meet them in Second House's quarters as soon as we're able." The sheets behind Shaw rustled and Root's arms wrapped around her waist from behind. The warmth of Root's body pressed against her back, and Root's lips pressed a hard kiss on the side of her neck. "I think they can wait a few more minutes though, don't you?" Root murmured into her ear.

"I think we need to know what's going on," Shaw argued without much force. "The Emperor is supposedly on his way, and--" She stopped when Root bit down on her neck, a light nip that held a threat of more. "Also you might be able to heal yourself, but I can't and if I rip out the stitches I put in, I don't have enough thread to redo them."

"I'll be gentle," Root promised playfully.

Shaw gave up.

* * *

"We need to talk," Root said, words that set off so many alarm bells in Shaw's head that she almost bolted out of bed.

"About what?" she asked cautiously. Root was lying partially on top of her, head on Shaw's chest and her arm flung over Shaw's body.

"About the future. A discussion between the Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and her cavalier primary."

"Oh." That was probably acceptable.

"I thought we should have our own affairs in order before finding the others." Root shifted so she could look up at Shaw and meet her eyes. "Do you want to go back to Sixth House, Shaw? I know that Daniel's death may have complicated that, but if it's what you want, I'll find a way to make it happen."

"Uh, no, I don't think...I don't have anything left there, I guess." She hadn't before either, but she hadn't had anything on Ninth either. Not back then. "You're stuck with me for now."

Root's smile made the admission worth it.

"You don't want to be stuck in Castle Drearburh for the rest of your life," Root said. Shaw tried to protest, but Root kept talking. "And neither do I. Which means we'll have to figure out what to do about Ninth House."

"What do you mean, what to do?" If Root wanted to be free of them, she only had to walk away and let them all die out. But there was also the matter of…. "The tomb. The dead girl in the tomb you have a thing for."

Root nodded, her soft hair brushing back and forth across Shaw's chin. "I need to know more about her and the tomb before I can even consider leaving, and it occurred to me that there was one way I might find out."

"The Emperor? Not sure how well disposed he's going to be to chatting about his darkest secrets after we failed his test and killed his Lyctor." She'd had enough eye contact for a while so she watched her own hand tracing a line up and down Root's spine. Root really seemed to like when she did that, she'd noticed; maybe bone adepts liked getting their bones petted. Seemed like the sort of weird shit Root would be into.

"No, not the Emperor," Root agreed. "There's too many unknowns to bring anyone else into this yet, and everything that happened here has only raised more questions on that count. I meant here. Canaan House."

"Huh?" Her hand froze on Root's back. "Do you know how many times we've almost died here?"

Root raised an eyebrow. "I thought you liked a challenge."

"Yeah, but--"

"Shaw, the libraries and documents here have so much in them from the early post-resurrection years. If there was anywhere there might be clues about the tomb and the Lyctors…."

"What about the Lyctors?" Shaw asked suspiciously. "I thought you didn't want that anymore."

"I don't," Root said firmly. "But there's...inconsistencies. Missing pieces. The megatheorem was like a puzzle whose pieces seemed to fit together until you look at it from a distance and see the gaps. There's more here to learn."

"So you want to...move here?" She cautiously resumed the movement of her fingers along Root's back.

"Not entirely. I was thinking we go back to the Ninth House, make sure everything is in order, take a little time to recover--" (Shaw wasn't sure a frozen planet was the best place to recover, but she kept that to herself). "--there's some things I want to check in the libraries there, and then, once things have settled down, we come back here to gather information."

"And then what?"

"I suppose that depends what we find." Root rested her cheek back on Shaw's chest, the bone studs of her earrings pressing into Shaw's skin. "One thing at a time. How does that sound?"

"I don't have a better plan," Shaw said. "At least this place has baths. And sunlight." Canaan House might even be nice if they weren't in mortal peril.

"And rain," Root added.

"And rain," Shaw agreed. She looked back over her shoulder at the light around the curtains. It was probably late morning by now. "We should go find the others."

"We should, though don't mention our plans to return here."

"I figured that fell under Ninth House secrets, so technically I already signed a form promising not to."

Root laughed and climbed off of her. "Let's go find the others."

* * *

Dani Silva and John Reese were not going to be friends, Shaw could tell. Silva was propped up stiffly on a chair in the dining room still looking a little too pale and glaring at Reese who was sitting at another table trying not to look over at her. Apparently teaming up with someone else's necromancer, even in an emergency, was grounds for a grudge.

"I think we're all agreed that none of us intends to become Lyctors," Carter said, either unaware of or ignoring the cavalier drama. "Correct?" The question sounded like a threat.

"Agreed," Zoe said.

"Agreed," Root said also. Under the table, her hand was resting on Shaw's thigh, millimeters away from being highly inappropriate.

"The Emperor's invitation here did say something about how we could all go home with full honor if we didn't become Lyctors," Shaw said. She'd made Root show her the invitation before they'd come to Canaan House and even though it had been in language so flowery and pretentious that it was almost illegible, she'd picked out the important bits.

"It did," Root agreed. "Though I can't imagine he's going to be thrilled that none of us ascended."

"And that we killed his Lyctor."

"His Lyctor did try to murder us," Zoe said, "and actually did murder several of us. I don't see how we can be blamed for protecting ourselves."

"Yes, I'm sure Martine wanted to kill God because he's a reasonable and kind individual," Root said sweetly.

"Martine was a sadistic bitch," Shaw said. "Her motivation for trying to kill him could have been just about anything." Though silently she agreed with Root's reservations.

"We all talk to the Emperor, or whomever he sends here, together," Carter said. She'd been acting like the leader this whole time and, much to Shaw's relief, no one had challenged her on it. Shaw could tell Root was irritated by it, but so far she'd held her peace.

"Do we have any idea when he arrives?" Tomas asked.

"Within the next few days if I had to guess," Carter said. "But I can't say for sure."

"We'll have to find some way to entertain ourselves in the meantime," Root said. Shaw jumped slightly and then removed Root's hand from her leg with a warning glare.

"I'm sure we'll manage," Carter said dryly.

"What could possibly go wrong?" Shaw muttered under her breath.

The first problem they ran into was one Shaw was able to solve herself. With the priests and skeleton servants all gone, they were on their own for food. There were plenty of supplies in the storerooms and freezer that they could have survived off of without much preparation, but it wouldn't have been very satisfying. It had been years since Shaw had gotten a chance to cook, and her skills were a bit rusty, but relearning her way around a kitchen gave her something to do. (Also the look of sheer delight on Root's face when Shaw had confessed to her skill had been pleasing).

The next problem was more of a mystery than a problem. Shaw spent the better part of a day down in the facility before she found where Martine had stashed Kelli's body. She laid Kelli to rest in the freezer until their way out arrived. Sealed boxes with what remained of the others were stored there as well (Shaw did _not_ want to know how they'd gathered up the pieces and sorted them out) all to be sent back to their Houses.

And then there was nothing to do but wait.

* * *

"Zoe's offer still stands," Tomas said as they left the training room.

"Tell her thanks, but no thanks," Shaw said. She looked at the pool as they passed by, remembering the day Root had brought her here. "I'm the cavalier primary of Ninth House now. As officially as I can be."

"I thought you'd say that," Tomas said fondly. "But Zoe insisted I ask. I think she knew what you'd say also though."

"I'm just an open book apparently." Shaw grumbled. "Why don't we pry into Reese's life instead?"

"Leave me out of this," Reese said from the other side of Tomas. He'd been very cryptic about his plans now that his necromancer was dead, though Shaw suspected he'd try to find a way to tag along after Carter if she let him. And if Dani didn't murder him.

"Did you have fun playing with the other cavaliers?" Root asked when she arrived back at their rooms. She was sitting on the bed, surrounded by flimsy and notes. A skeleton stood next to the bed holding a stack of books.

"Yeah it was fun. I kicked Reese's ass again." She took off her knives (Reese had found them for her) and her rapier and dropped them on the table. "You find out anything interesting in your latest raid?" Root had started in on the libraries.

"Not really. I wonder if I should go through the shelves in the Lyctor rooms first instead. I haven't found all the keys yet, but we know they're all in the building somewhere so it's only a matter of time."

"They probably kept the good stuff locked away," Shaw agreed as she pulled her shirt off over her head. She was still sweaty from fighting but the gash on her side was gone now, healed by Zoe, who had also kindly fixed her leg for her.

"There might be more down in the facility as well," Root continued, momentarily oblivious. "Though since the facility wasn't preserved the way the Lyctors' rooms were, most of it has probably disintegrated. I think--" She looked up and froze.

"You think what?" Shaw asked. "Because you don't look like you're thinking much right now." She wondered if it would be overdoing it to flex.

There was a blurred rustling of flimsy as Root cleared the bed off and dumped all her materials into the arms of the passive skeleton who tottered away into the other room obediently. Shaw climbed up onto the other side of the bed.

"The skeleton stays out of the room," she said.

"It's not like they can even see us," Root protested. "They don't have eyes, Shaw."

"Having empty eye sockets staring at me is not sexy at all." She walked across the bed towards Root on her hands and knees. Root lay back across the sheets and reached for her.

"And no surprise skeleton hands popping out of the headboard either," Shaw added. She hovered above Root and looked down at the sappy smile on her face. Ridiculous.

"Would I do that?" asked Root as if she wasn't guilty of multiple offenses involving skeletons in the bedroom at inappropriate times.

Shaw didn't dignify that with an answer and bent down to kiss her instead.

Much later, they both woke up to the sound of a shuttle roaring through the sky above Canaan House.

"That must be for us," Root said. "Ready to go home, Sameen?"

"Yeah, I'm ready."

* * *

Three years earlier

_Shaw stepped out of the shuttle onto what had to be the darkest shuttle dock she'd ever seen. Or not seen rather. She squinted in the gloom to make out what looked more like a dirt-floored pit than a real dock of any sort. She hadn't expected much from the Ninth House, but this was pretty sad._

_"Sameen Shaw, I presume?" A piece of the darkness detached itself and, for a second, Shaw thought there was a skull floating through the gloom towards her. Her eyes adjusted and she saw it was actually a tall, skinny woman wrapped in black robes with her face painted like a skull._

_"Yeah, I'm Shaw. Sixth House ambassador." The title felt heavy in her mouth._

_"I am the Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House," the woman in black said, "but you can call me Root."_

_"Uh, okay." No one had known anything about the heir of Ninth House (or any of Ninth House for that matter), so she hadn't known what to expect. She definitely hadn't thought she'd be greeted by someone this important. Was she supposed to bow or something?_

_"I'll have your things taken to your room," Root continued, "and in the meantime, I'll show you around."_

_"Only have this," Shaw said, hefting her small bag. "And I'd rather hang onto it for now."_

_"Of course," Root said. "This way then."_

_"Is it always this dark here?" Shaw asked as she followed Root through a hallway lit by flickering yellow lights._

_"Is it really that dark here?" Root asked. "I've been told that it is, but I've never been to another planet, so it's hard to compare."_

_"Uh, yeah. No offense but it's pitch fucking black here." She felt a stab of anger at the fact she might never get to see real sunlight again. Sent here to die on a barren wasteland full of skeleton nuns. Maybe she should have tried to hijack the shuttle after all._

_Root paused and turned around and Shaw realized she'd already managed to win the worst diplomat in the galaxy award and tried to dredge up an apology. Her words fell away though when Root advanced on her, stopping when there was only a few scant inches left between them. Her eyes were bright points of light in the darkness and Shaw thought that maybe she might be pretty somewhere under all that paint._

_"You're not really an ambassador, are you?" Root asked curiously._

_Shaw wondered what would happen if Ninth House sent her back. Would she even get back to Sixth alive, or just be ejected into space on the way back?_

_"Not even remotely," she said, resigned but defiant._

_Root's horrible skull face split into a huge smile. "Good." She turned away and motioned for Shaw to follow. "This way, Shaw. We're going to have so much fun together."_

_Shaw's confusion and bitterness gave way to curiosity. Maybe there was more to Ninth House than she'd expected. She followed Root into the darkness of her new home._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woooo, it's done! Thank you all for reading and an extra thank you to all who left comments and kudos!


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